Ukraine has 608 locomotives damaged since the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion in February 2022: 533 belonging to the state railway company Ukrzaliznytsia and 75 to private companies, according to the Minister for Reconstruction, Infrastructure and Transport, Mykola Kalashnyk.

The country is negotiating a “railway coalition” agreed at the Carpathian Eight meeting in Bukovel, with Austria, Hungary, Poland, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia and Czechia, and has secured USD 100 million in grant funding under the RELINC project to buy used locomotives on international markets, plus EUR 130 million from the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) for energy resilience. Slovakia will transfer three electric locomotives.