Ukrainian services say they have destroyed a Russian train carrying fuel, writes Reuters

(Reuters) – Ukraine’s SBU security service said on Sunday it had launched an operation to destroy 40 rail cars carrying fuel for Russian troops in the Moscow-held Zaporozhye region of southern Ukraine.

The SBU told Reuters that the operation involved various intelligence and military services and took place in a series of phases.

“The goal was to disrupt the logistical routes of fuel supply from Crimea to the temporarily occupied areas of Zaporozhye,” the statement said.

Reuters could not independently verify the Ukrainian account. Russia did not immediately comment on the reported incident.

The SBU said one of its units staged a sabotage operation that damaged a railway line while the train was moving near the village of Oleksiivka in the Russian-controlled part of the Zaporozhye region.

The train was stopped and the tank cars were set on fire, and army units fired US-supplied HIMARS missiles at the site.

“The missiles hit the locomotive and the cars at the end of the train. The enemy was not able to reach the tank and save part of the fuel,” the statement said.

“As a result of the special operation, a locomotive and 40 tank cars were destroyed, and an important railway line that served to supply Russian troops was put out of service for a long period.

Russian forces control about 70% of the Zaporozhye region, and a Ukrainian military spokesman said last month that Kiev expected Moscow to launch coordinated attacks in the region soon.

Russian forces also control about 70 percent of the neighboring Kherson region and about 80 percent of Donbass in the east, the main theater of current fighting in the 33-month-old war.