Ukrainian Railways hit by "Russian terrorists" just hours after announcing partial restoration

Ukrainian Railways (Ukrzaliznytsia) on Thursday said it was hit by Russian forces only hours after announcing a partial restoration of its technological infrastructure this week. The attack damaged one of its railway cars and forced passengers to shelter in place.

Thursday’s attack on its Kherson line, which happened about 5:00 p.m. local time, caused power outages and came just hours after the railway announced it had partially restored some of its network capabilities, which had been completely knocked offline during a massive Kremlin-backed hack of its infrastructure on Sunday.

The nation’s state-run railway took to X and blamed the attacks on "Russian terrorists." So far, it appears that no injuries were reported.

“Today, Russian terrorists struck the Kherson railway station and surrounding infrastructure,” it said.

“Carriage of the train No. 110 Kherson - Lviv was damaged, it departed with a delay of one and a half hours. Fortunately, railway workers and passengers stayed in shelter.”

Today, Russian terrorists struck the Kherson railway station and surrounding infrastructure.
ℹ️ Carriage of the train No. 110 Kherson - Lviv was damaged, it departed with a delay of one and a half hours. Fortunately, railway workers and passengers stayed in shelter. pic.twitter.com/9PShiw5YAK

undefined Ukrainian railways || Укрзалізниця (@Ukrzaliznytsia) March 27, 2025

Earlier on Thursday, Ukrainian Railways had announced on its Telegram channel and X that its website and online ticket sales were back up and running, although other technical issues affecting railway operations still remained.

"The Ukrzaliznytsia website and application were restored to non-stop operation in 89 hours after an unprecedented attack on the railway's key operating systems. At the first stage, only basic functionality will work," the railway said in the message.

"Despite the enemy's constant attacks on the infrastructure — offline and online — we continue to move forward and become even stronger," it stated, adding that "no sensitive information was leaked" during the March 23rd attack.

Currently, the Ukrzaliznytsia website is not loading, but it's unclear if Thursday's power outage contributed to the issue.

Restoration from weekend hack continues

In what Ukrzaliznytsia called the largest cyberattack in its history, the railway was hit by suspected Russian hackers over the weekend. However, the next morning, the railway said the physical movement of the trains was not disrupted, and services were still running without delays.

Ukrainian Railways had labeled the initial infrastructure attack “systemic” and “multi-level,” saying it was orchestrated by “the enemy,” presumably Russian state agencies or state-sponsored hackers.

Thursday’s restoration announcement to riders stated that there “still may be failures in the application and the website due to an increased demand.”

The railways, which said it had already sold about 12,000 tickets since the back-up version of its app was brought online, has asked passengers to purchase rail tickets only if there was “a need for urgent travel.”

The state company said it has been working with specialists from the Security Service of Ukraine (SSU) and the Computer Emergency Response Team of Ukraine (CERT-UA) to restore backup data since the weekend.