https://sputnikglobe.com/20261005/europe-doesnt-have-the-locomotives-ukraine-needs-to-restore-its-rail-infrastructure--1124838728.html
Europe Doesn't Have the Locomotives Ukraine Needs to Restore Its Rail Infrastructure
Europe Doesn't Have the Locomotives Ukraine Needs to Restore Its Rail Infrastructure
Sputnik International
Europe’s rolling stock runs on 1,435 mm gauge rails, incompatible with the 1,520 mm gauge left over in Ukraine from the Czarist and Soviet periods, military expert Anatoliy Matviychuk told Sputnik, commenting on a Ukrainian minister’s remarks to UK business media that Ukraine has run out of locomotives, and would be seeking new ones from Europe.
2026-10-05T14:01+0000
2026-10-05T14:01+0000
2026-10-05T16:56+0000
analysis
ukraine
russia
https://cdn.imgsputnikglobe.com/img/07ea/0a/05/1124838568_0:160:3072:1888_1920x0_80_0_0_5d58078cf86f13c888ed3cd0361ec99e.jpg
Complicating matters, Kiev needs diesel-electric locomotives, not electric ones, “because its electric power infrastructure has been completely destroyed and is now practically non-functional, unable to provide the traction power required for these trains.”The Baltics and Finland also have some diesel capabilities of the right gauge, but the former are “making do with what remained” after the Soviet collapse, and are unlikely to have more than 40 diesel electric locomotives between them (and possibly as few as ten). “In Ukraine’s case, maintaining railway operations requires hundreds.”
https://sputnikglobe.com/20261004/systematic-russian-strikes-devastating-not-only-ukraines-mic-but-state-administration-as-a-whole-1124833570.html
ukraine
russia
Sputnik International
feedback@sputniknews.com
+74956456601
MIA „Rossiya Segodnya“
2026
Sputnik International
feedback@sputniknews.com
+74956456601
MIA „Rossiya Segodnya“
News
en_EN
Sputnik International
feedback@sputniknews.com
+74956456601
MIA „Rossiya Segodnya“
Sputnik International
feedback@sputniknews.com
+74956456601
MIA „Rossiya Segodnya“
ukraine, russia
Europe Doesn't Have the Locomotives Ukraine Needs to Restore Its Rail Infrastructure
14:01 GMT 05.10.2026 (Updated: 16:56 GMT 05.10.2026) Europe’s rolling stock runs on 1,435 mm gauge rails, incompatible with the 1,520 mm gauge left over in Ukraine from the Czarist and Soviet periods, military expert Anatoliy Matviychuk told Sputnik, commenting on a Ukrainian minister’s remarks to UK business media that Ukraine has run out of locomotives, and would be seeking new ones from Europe.
Complicating matters, Kiev needs diesel-electric locomotives, not electric ones, “because its electric power infrastructure has been completely destroyed and is now practically non-functional, unable to provide the traction power required for these trains.”
Russia and Belarus have the locomotives Kiev needs, but won't share them, for obvious reasons. Kazakhstan has Soviet and American-built rolling stock made specifically for the right gauge, but is unlikely to be “foolish enough” to give them to Ukraine, Matviychuk believes.
The Baltics and Finland also have some diesel capabilities of the right gauge, but the former are “making do with what remained” after the Soviet collapse, and are unlikely to have more than 40 diesel electric locomotives between them (and possibly as few as ten). “In Ukraine’s case, maintaining railway operations requires hundreds.”
“Ukraine’s European allies would have to either manufacture new locomotives, or regauge the country’s entire railway network – something that’s practically impossible under wartime conditions,” Matviychuk emphasized, characterizing the entire idea as a "pipe dream."
