Do you remember the more than 60 kilometers long Russian convoy that got stuck on the way to Kiev? It now appears that the advance of tanks, armored vehicles and trucks was largely stopped by sabotage practices on the railways. That writes the Washington Post.
Read all about the war between Russia and Ukraine in our file
The impressive convoy, which had departed from Belarus, was first spotted via satellite images on February 28. A month later, however, little progress appeared to have been made.
The Russians relied on the train network to provide the troops with much-needed fuel and food supplies. However, a secret network of Belarusian railway workers, hackers and defectors in the security services put a stop to that. This motley crew had banded together from the first day of the invasion, with one goal: to slow down the Russian advance as much as possible.
signal boxes
They focused their attention on the signal boxes. Disrupting rail traffic there left trains stationary for days. In the end, the Russians had no choice but to supply their troops by road. The sabotage practices saddled the Russians with unprecedented logistical problems.
“The Russians were very dependent on the train network,” says researcher Emily Ferris of the London think tank RUSI. “I am sure that this tactic has stopped their advance and also caused a lot of headaches. They could not advance further into Ukrainian territory because they had to wait for trucks for the extra supplies.”
“Peacefully brought to a halt”
Rail sabotage was already a particularly successful guerrilla tactic in World War II. This time, however, no blood had to be spilled. “We didn’t want to kill any Russian or Belarusian drivers. We stopped them in a peaceful manner,” Yury Ravavy said. The Belarusian activist is one of the initiators of the entire enterprise. For understandable reasons, he refuses to reveal exactly how the cyber attacks were carried out.
On April 2, Kiev could breathe a sigh of relief: the convoy had withdrawn because the troops would now be deployed in the battle for the Donbas.
Also read: Flemish farmer (43) 110 km from Kiev: “When we have to go to an air raid shelter, we tell the children: ‘We are playing night game again’” (+)
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