For our September edition of The Dispatch, The Reckoning Project’s monthly column, Fredrik Wesslau, former Chairman of the Board and currently Senior International Advisor at The Reckoning Project, reflects on Russia’s intensified attacks on civilians and civilian infrastructure in Ukraine after a visit to the country earlier in September.
Postcard from a Field Next To Ukraine’s Border with Poland
By: Fredrik Wesslau
Someone banged on my door. I opened my eyes and saw a sliver of light coming through the blinds in my compartment. It was early morning. I got up from my berth and opened the door.
The usually cheerful train attendant looked stern. She stared at me and pointed a finger to the ceiling. Drone, she said. A Russian drone was overhead.
The attendant ushered us out of the train carriage and onto a barren field next to a few scattered houses. We huddled together smelling the dew in the chilly morning air. The other passengers were nearly all women and children travelling to Poland.
Everyone stared incredulously at the train – no doubt imagining it being hit by the drone and blowing up in front of us.
Our night train from Kyiv had stopped only a few kilometres from the border with Poland. Three days earlier, on 13 September, a Russian jet-powered drone had smashed into a locomotive pulling a civilian passenger train.
It didn’t matter that the train was on the EU’s doorstep. In response to a question about the attack, Putin’s spokesman, Dimitry Peskov, said that Russia’s military would carry out its “tasks throughout the territory of Ukraine.”
Since the beginning of the invasion, Russia has destroyed 500 Ukrainian locomotives, most of them since the beginning of the year. Ukrainian trains have become the country’s lifeline given that the airspace is closed to civilian air traffic.
As we stood there on the field, the attendant suddenly told us to move away from the train. The distinct humming of a drone grew louder. We all looked up at the perfectly blue sky. The terror of drones is the terror of hearing but not seeing – until they strike. This drone passed above us to hit another target. We were lucky.
The conductors and attendants have become symbols of Ukrainian resilience – which is exactly why Russia is intensifying its attacks against trains and other civilian infrastructure in Ukraine.
Russia is intent on breaking the morale of Ukrainians by terrorising the population and making Ukraine uninhabitable ahead of winter. Last winter, Russia tried to weaponize cold. By destroying energy infrastructure, Russia tried to use extreme cold to force Ukrainians out of their country.
This year, Russia is expanding its war to attack civilian tankers carrying grain from Odesa to the global market. It is hitting steel plants to strangle Ukraine’s economy. It is hitting warehouses to cut the supply chain and create food shortages in Ukraine. It is hitting water infrastructure to make life unsustainable. It is targeting residential buildings to terrorise the population. By cutting the vital lifeline that the trains provide, Russia is trying to choke Ukraine.
Russia is deliberately attacking civilians and civilian infrastructure – a playbook that Putin used in Grozny and Aleppo.
The Reckoning Project has, since the first days of the invasion, documented atrocity crimes committed by Russia in Ukraine. We have provided evidence to Ukrainian courts, along with the International Criminal Court and UN treaty bodies, including on the deportation and indoctrination of Ukrainian children.
We have filed a criminal complaint on behalf of a survivor in Argentina. We have told the stories of victims and witnesses through countless articles, documentaries, and podcasts.
The search for justice and accountability continues. It may take decades to hold all the guilty accountable for their crimes in Ukraine. But this work is essential. It is fundamentally about defending the fabric of international order. Russia’s escalation against civilians and civilian infrastructure – such as trains carrying women and children to safety in Poland – is an attack on this order.