The community of Railway Workers of Belarus is a Belarusian opposition initiative of railway workers, recognized by the Belarusian authorities as an extremist formation. On its Telegram channel belzhd_live, it regularly informs about all important events concerning Belarusian railways and the railway industry in general. Since the beginning of the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022, the community has been carrying out railroad sabotage to undermine the logistics of the Russian army.
Now concrete data have been published on Telegram about the number of munitions exchanged between Russia and Belarus since the beginning of the war. These figures point to the role of the railways in the war and the links between the two countries. According to published data, Russia and Belarus have exchanged 102,356 tonnes of ammunition since the beginning of the conflict, equivalent to 3,330 wagons.
If we look at the chart showing the amount of ammunition exported from Belarus to Russia, we can see that the largest amount was delivered to Russia in April - a total of 22 534 tonnes of ammunition, which represents 689 wagons and almost 35% of the total. In the following months, the quantity of ammunition delivered was between 6 033 and 8 606 tonnes. A larger increase than occurred in September (14 479 tonnes, equivalent to 442 wagons) is probably also related to the intensified attacks on Ukrainian cities.
In the case of the opposite direction from Belarus to Russia, it is not too surprising that the largest deliveries of ammunition by rail were made at the very beginning of the war in February 2022. In that month, trains brought 26 769 tonnes of ammunition to Russia, equivalent to 951 rail wagons and almost 72% of the total. In March the supply was reduced to 8 089 tons, and then in the following months, a steeper decrease followed, with the quantity of ammunition delivered ranging from 83 to 1 708 tonnes.
