On the morning of 7 October, partisans detonated a railway track on the Stroganovo-Mshinskaya stretch in Russia's Leningrad Oblast, causing a locomotive and several cars of a military cargo train to derail, according to an informed source from Ukrainian intelligence who spoke to hromadske.
The special operation paralyzed train traffic on the St. Petersburg-Pskov route, the source said.
Russian authorities stopped movement on the Stroganovo-Mshinskaya stretch citing "technical reasons." The press service of the Oktyabrskaya Railway announced early in the morning that "due to technical reasons," the route of "a number of passenger and suburban trains in Leningrad Oblast" would be changed.
"The route of trains №810 Lastochka Pskov-St. Petersburg and №809 Lastochka St. Petersburg-Pskov will be changed. The trains will pass through Batetskaya station. In this regard, the travel time of these trains will increase by up to 2 hours," the statement said.
The specific "technical reasons" were not disclosed.
The Leningrad Oblast administration later reported the introduction of reversible traffic and the launch of buses on the railway section between Stroganovo and Mshinskaya.
After noon, the publication 47news contacted the 24-hour customer support center of Russian Railways, where they reported that the Lastochka train from St. Petersburg to Pskov was delayed by approximately 2 hours 50 minutes. Russian Railways declined to specify the exact causes of the delays, limiting itself to "technical reasons."
The Northwestern Transport Prosecutor's Office organized an inspection regarding the route changes of suburban trains in Leningrad Oblast.
Intelligence data indicates that internet access has been completely cut off in the area of the incident, where law enforcement agencies are operating, according to the Ukrainian intelligence source who spoke to hromadske. Special services are working at the incident site, clearing overturned train cars from the tracks. No photos or videos from the scene have emerged yet.
This marks the second incident on the same stretch in three weeks. On 14 September, Leningrad Oblast Governor Alexander Drozdenko reported that three cars of an empty freight train derailed on the Stroganovo-Mshinskaya stretch, with investigators examining a sabotage version. It later became known that 15 cars had derailed.
A source later told RBC-Ukraine that the Main Intelligence Directorate of the Ministry of Defense and the Special Operations Forces of Ukraine were responsible for the railway track explosion in Leningrad Oblast in September.
According to the sources, speaking to hromadske, such special operations reduce the logistical and military capabilities of the Russian Federation, since Russian Railways is the backbone of the Russian army's logistics and a significant financial donor to the "war budget."