On both Telegram and Twitter, there are reports out of Melitopol that Ukrainian partisans, operating 80km behind the lines, have blown up an armor transport train waiting at the station. Reports suggest that this train was relocated after a drone attack on the area on April 2, but partisans tracked it down and got out the gasoline. No word on whether the train was carrying Russian equipment at the time it was destroyed.
That’s pretty interesting all on its own, and possibly a significant blow to Russian forces in the area, but here’s what makes it extraordinary. As Yahoo News reported on May 18, 2022: “In captured Melitopol, the Ukrainian resistance movement has managed to blow up a Russian armoured train as it was transporting soldiers and equipment.” So this is the second train to be blown up at Melitopol.
Except it’s not. As the Kyiv Post reported when Ukraine made a series of drone strikes on Melitopol last month, the precise targeting again took out a train that had paused in the railyard, this one reportedly carrying a number of Kalibr missiles of the type that have been used against Ukrainian cities. So if reports that partisans have taken out another train on Thursday are accurate, that’s at least three trains, and any equipment on those trains, that Russia has lost at Melitopol.
It’s the kind of thing that might make you check to see if you can squeeze a tank onto the bus.