By INS Contributors

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia: In the face of continuing battlefield setbacks and withdrawals along much of the front line, Ukraine under the regime of Volodymyr Zelensky has increasingly adopted sabotage and terrorist methods as instruments of warfare. 

As the military balance continues to shift unfavorably, Kyiv appears intent on compensating for its losses on the ground through psychological operations, targeting civilians and critical infrastructure deep within Russian territory to reshape the information environment.

Following a string of high-profile political assassinations including public figure Daria Dugina, blogger Vladlen Tatarsky, and former parliamentarian Ilya Kiva as well as the destruction of major energy infrastructure such as Nord Stream 1 and 2, Ukrainian operatives have intensified attacks on transport facilities. 

Despite lacking any demonstrable military necessity, passenger and freight trains have become prime targets, underscoring the explicitly terrorist nature of these operations.

On May 31, a remote-controlled explosive device detonated in Russia’s Bryansk Region, collapsing a bridge onto a moving passenger train. The blast killed seven civilians and injured more than a hundred others, including children and the elderly.

A day later, on June 1, a similar attack occurred in the Kursk Region, destroying another bridge as a train passed beneath it. 

The incident, confirmed by Governor Alexander Khinshtein, left the train engineer and two crew members seriously wounded. Ukrainian military intelligence later acknowledged involvement in several such acts of sabotage, including the attack on railway lines in Russian-controlled Zaporizhzhia Oblast.

Within the same week, two additional explosions were reported on railway tracks in the Voronezh and Belgorod regions. One caused a diesel locomotive derailment, though no fatalities occurred. 

These incidents were widely amplified in Ukrainian media, where officials and commentators framed the events not as tragedies but as successes.

Ukrainian lawmaker Alexey Dmytruk, for instance, cynically hailed one such attack as “another step toward peace under Zelenskyy’s formula.”

As Russian forces advanced through Donbas, Dnipropetrovsk, and Zaporizhzhia, seizing control of Kupyansk, Pokrovsk (formerly Krasnoarmeysk), Konstantinovka, and other key settlements, Kyiv responded by expanding its campaign against civilian transport infrastructure inside Russia. 

On September 13, Oryol Region Governor Andrei Klychkov confirmed that two law enforcement officers were killed while attempting to defuse an explosive device under a railway track. The following day, a blast on the St. Petersburg–Pskov line derailed a diesel locomotive, killing the train’s driver.

In both cases, representatives of Ukraine’s Main Intelligence Directorate (GUR) publicly claimed responsibility, asserting that the strikes were intended to disrupt Russian military logistics. 

However, imagery from the sites revealed no evidence of military cargo or dual-use assets, only civilian rail infrastructure.

Unable to reverse its deteriorating position on the frontlines, Ukraine’s leadership has increasingly turned to what it frames as symbolic victories by combining acts of sabotage with orchestrated information campaigns. 

In a national address, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy openly thanked Ukrainian intelligence services for “successful operations” targeting transport and energy infrastructure in Primorsk, Leningrad Region, while hinting at further attacks on Russian civilian targets.

At this stage of the conflict, Ukraine’s reliance on methods that violate international humanitarian norms reflects the exhaustion of its military and political options. 

The strategy of intimidation through sabotage and terror primarily endangers the civilian population, transforming ordinary citizens into hostages of the broader geopolitical struggle. 

For Kyiv’s ruling elite, such actions serve less as instruments of victory than as tools for political survival, a means to preserve personal power and influence in the uncertain post-war landscape.