“Be brave enough to be Ukrainian,” reads a sign on the night train that runs from Przemysl (Poland) to Kyiv, one of the few entry routes into the country since the start of the Russian invasion. It is not necessary to ask the workers of the state railway company, Ukrzaliznytsia.
“Not a single one has asked not to work on the lines that pass near combat zones or occupied areas,” explains Alexander Shevchenko, head of Customer Service, proudly, despite the fact that there are daily attacks on the lines (1,200 in total during the first year of the war), 400 employees have been killed, hundreds have been wounded, and three remain captured.
“Railway employees, like the army, have not had a break since the first days of the invasion. Many lives depend on how efficient we are at our work,†says Nataliya Kudrych, a conductor, who last year helped lead thousands of children away from the bombs and now covers the line to Kherson. “I did not consider stopping, we had to save lives.” She remembers a mother who gave her two young children to put on the train, even though there was no room for her, with the idea of ​​reuniting later (“I hope they made it,” she says). Or the case of a father who was traveling with two twins in the evacuation of Volnovakha. His wife had died, the victim of a missile, and his eldest daughter was missing.
Today’s stamps in Ukrainian train stations have nothing to do with those of then, but they are just as anomalous. At passport control in Poland, the only Ukrainians are women and children, as men are prohibited from leaving the country. Shortly after starting the train, at 8:28 p.m., the curtains are lowered. For safety, the crystals are covered with plastic on the inside, so that in the event of an explosion they do not cause damage.
Soon, Ukrainian soldiers armed to the teeth will pass by to check passports and the train will not start until they control the last passenger. Meanwhile, in the comfortable sleeping cars, strangers share confidences and food united by a curious sense of solidarity before being rocked by the rattle of the train and trying to sleep. At seven in the morning, the aisles are once again filled with activity while a conductor offers hot drinks to the passengers. At 9:04 in the morning, we arrive punctually in Kyiv and the platform becomes the scene of emotional reunions.
The punctuality of the Ukrainian railways, higher than that of many EU countries even in times of war, is a source of pride for the company, which claims not to have canceled any train since the start of the invasion. In April, for example, 94% of the trains arrived on time at their destination, including the one that crosses the country from end to end and connects Kherson with Lviv and was recently attacked by a Russian missile. The operators removed the affected car, evacuated the injured employee, squeezed the passengers into another car and, 14 minutes later, the train was running again. He arrived at his destination at the scheduled time. “That’s how strong our determination is,†Shevchenko emphasizes. In times as uncertain as these, the certainty that the trains are still running gives hope to the country.
Often painted blue and yellow, the colors of the national flag, the railways have become a powerful symbol of Ukraine’s resistance to the invader. Its second army, as it is called, has enabled the evacuation of four million refugees, the transport of wounded and hundreds of thousands of tons of humanitarian aid, the deployment of troops and the delivery of arms and ammunition to the entire country. The railways are the backbone of Ukrainian logistics and their resilience has been key to maintaining the economy, reviving foreign trade and reducing its financial needs.
With the war, its old weaknesses (an overextensive network and overstaffing, mainly) have become its strengths. Having such a vast network allows them to easily divert traffic and redouble the protection of certain convoys, for example those carrying weapons or international leaders, since there are always alternative routes. “Parts of the network that don’t appear on the maps and that allows us to move material along routes unknown to the enemy,†says Shevchenko.
Before the war, Ukrzaliznytsia had 230,000 employees (Renfe, for example, has about 15,000). Of these, some 15,000 enlisted in the army and many others have left the country. The losses have not been noticed, says the company, which since 2014, following the signing of the Association Agreement between the EU and Ukraine, has accelerated reforms to align with European standards “in every way”, recalls Oleh Vasyliev , from the State University of Railway Transport. In 2021, under the leadership of Alexander Kamyshin, recently appointed Minister of Critical Supplies, Ukrzaliznytsia finally got out of the red.
Although affected by the war, this strategy has received an additional boost thanks to the interest of other European countries in cooperating with Ukraine. The downside of the network being conceived in USSR times to deploy military operations now has the drawback that “aggressor troops can also use this network to support their army and deploy logistical operations,” Vasyliev points out. That is why, while the expected counter-offensive is coming, the Ukrainian armed forces are intensively attacking railway junctions in Russian-occupied areas. Each army has its mission. And now the favorite of his number two is to reach the liberated areas. “With us comes civilization.”
