(Reuters) – Ukraine’s SBU security service said on Sunday it had launched an operation to destroy 40 rail cars carrying fuel to Russian troops in an area of the Zaporizhzhia region Moscow holds in southern Ukraine.
The SBU told Reuters the operation involved different intelligence and military services and unfolded over a series of stages.
“The aim was to disrupt the logistical supply routes for fuel from Crimea to temporarily occupied areas of Zaporizhzhia,” it said in a statement.
Reuters could not independently verify the Ukrainian account. Russia made no immediate comment on the reported incident.
The SBU said one of its units organised a sabotage operation that damaged a rail line as the train was moving near the village of Oleksiivka in a Russian-held part of Zaporizhzhia region.
The train was halted, with tanker cars ablaze, and army units fired U.S.-supplied HIMARS missiles at the site.
“The missiles struck the locomotive and cars at the end of the train. The enemy was unable to reach the tanks and salvage some of the fuel,” the statement said.
“As a result of the special operation, the locomotive and 40 tanker cars were destroyed and an important rail line used to supply Russian troops was taken out of service for an extended period.”
Russian forces control about 70% of Zaporizhzhia region and a Ukrainian military spokesperson said last month Kyiv expected Moscow to launch concerted attacks in the region soon.
Russian forces also control about 70% of neighbouring Kherson region and about 80 percent of the Donbas in the east, the main theatre of current clashes in the 33-month-old war.
(Reporting by Ron Popeski, Editing by Nick Zieminski)
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