Why Railway War Is Stopping Belarus Joining Russias Invasion Of Ukraine

Alexander Lukashenka’s regime has acted as an accomplice to Russia’s aggression against Ukraine since February, providing its territory as a staging ground for the invasion.

But the Belarusian military itself is yet to directly enter into the conflict. The main deterrent? Belarusian society’s total rejection of the prospect of participating in the war.

For some people, the desire to help Ukraine has led to a non-violent partisan movement against Russian military activity in Belarus.

Indeed, the most striking manifestation of Belarus’ anti-war movement are the acts of resistance on the country’s railway network. In response to the Russian invasion of Ukraine, a wave of sabotage swept across the country: people who oppose the war have tried to render the railways unusable, preventing Russian military equipment from moving through Belarusian territory.

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Sign up now The fact that people have turned to direct acts of resistance speaks to the impact of the regime’s wave of political terror since Belarus’ 2020 elections: today, the price of going out on the street is too high. Some Belarusians have therefore turned to the underground.

Anti-guerrilla operations
The railway campaign has already racked up 80 acts of sabotage, according to the Belarusian Interior Ministry. Independent media dubbed this campaign a new “rail war” – the term for Belarusian partisan attacks against railway lines during the Nazi occupation. Participants are now referred to as “partisans”.

The most common form of sabotage is setting fire to signalling systems so that traffic lights stop working on certain sections of the Belarusian railway network. As a result, trains are forced to move at a speed of 15 to 20km an hour.

There are also simpler acts of sabotage: for example, in the town of Stolbtsy, a married couple was arrested for setting fire to logs to stop the movement of military transports [by bringing down signalling systems or slowing down trains]. These actions are not designed to derail military trains, engineer a crash or injure people directly.