Crowds of passengers, who arrived at the station hours earlier to avoid being on the road during curfew hours, search in black ink for the right wagon, before the train is on its way again with a creaking wheel and a loud whistle of steam.
Refugees find it difficult to board the evacuation train from Lviv to Przemyśl, Poland, as authorities inspect their papers. The women and children of the family go on the train, while the men do not.
This scene has been played on stations across Ukraine repeatedly over the past month, as the Ukrainian Railways have been involved in one of the most striking elements of Ukraine’s military effort. Many millions of people traveled west safely on evacuation trains, while wagons returned east full of tons of humanitarian aid.
Refugees wait at the Medyca border crossing after crossing into Poland. Most travel to Lviv by evacuation train. From there they either take another evacuation train to Poland, or go by bus or car to the Polish border. Once crossing the border on foot, there are buses to take them to the nearest town of Przemyśl.
Ukrainian Railways employs more than 230,000 people and almost all of its employees have stayed in the country to work, according to Oleksandr Kamyshin, the company’s chief executive. While stations in Russian-occupied areas are now closed, trains have continued to run even to cities such as Kharkiv, which is under constant Russian fire. Since the war began, 64 workers have lost their lives and 71 have been injured, he said, counting incidents at work and those in workers’ homes. “If the track explodes, we repair it. If we can get somewhere, let’s go. “It may be dangerous for our staff, but then this train can save thousands of other people from danger,” Kamyshin said in an interview with Kiev Central Station. He and a small “mobile command center” of seven people spent the last month crossing the country by train, to show support to staff working in all parts of the country. “We have a lot of special wagons for our use, but we do not use them outside the west of the country because the Russians may be able to recognize them,” he said.
Vjacheslav Anatolijovuch Chumak, 43, who runs the evacuation train from Kyiv to Lviv. “I have been working for Ukrzaliznutsia since 1996 and I have traveled all over Ukraine: Kyiv-Lviv, Kyiv-Konstantinovka, Kyiv-Dnipro, Kyiv-Kharkov. I feel a sense of stress from doing my job. How can you look into the eyes of children who are scared and their mothers who are not going anywhere. Their souls are cracked and their hearts ache. “As a train driver I see what is happening.”
At the height of the evacuation program, 200,000 people a day traveled west, on trains that were free for all, with women and children having priority. There were heartbreaking scenes at Kiev Central Station during the early days of the war, as residents feared the capital would face the same fate as Mariupol, Kharkiv and other cities, and tried to leave as soon as possible. The trains were often full, uncomfortable and sweaty inside, but they did the job. In the first two weeks of the war alone, 2 million passengers were transported safely. Dmitry Yaroshenko, 36, has been working on the railroad since he was 20. He is now the train manager on train 82, which runs between Uzhhorod in the west, on the border with Slovakia, and Kiev. “We turn off the lights for the travel section around Kyiv and wherever it may be dangerous, as well as if the train stops. “Who knows who might be hiding in the bushes,” he said on a recent trip to the Ukrainian capital. He said he had no qualms about continuing to work during the war and considered his own role as part of Ukraine’s overall war effort.
Tetjana, 36, and her daughter Sofia, 5, from Sumy, a city that has been under attack by Russian forces since the beginning of the invasion. Tetjana used to work as a train carrier on evacuation trains, but for the sake of her daughter’s safety she says she has now decided to leave the country herself. She was the last to leave the apartment building in which they lived. They are on their way to Przemyśl by an evacuation train themselves, which is at a stop in Lviv.
A wagon intended for children with special needs on the evacuation train from Kryvyi Rih to Chop. The train journey took two whole days. During the night, the lights were off so that the train could not be seen by Russian forces.
“It’s painful that our soldiers, our women and our children are dying. But nerves and hysteria do not help. “In these moments it is better to keep yourself and stay calm,” he said. Working on trains is a way of life in Ukraine and Yaroshenko speaks of his team with genuine pride. The number 82 is “one of the best” in the country, he said. He wore a smart navy suit with gold buttons embossed on the Ukrainian trident. “I have 25 carriage attendants and we are like a family. We have New Year’s parties together, we have our own group on Viber. “They should look at their boss and take an example from me that I do not panic,” he said. On the days of his leave, he helps guard a checkpoint near his village.
Eugen Zagoruk, train driver on the route Lviv – Przemyśl. “I’m doing the evacuation train in a westerly direction. At Mostyska, Sambir, Syanky, Lavochne, Mukachevo and Uzhhorod stations. The journey from here to Poland takes 21 hours, and they have already traveled from the east for who knows how many hours. “When we get to Poland, they have to go somewhere else and it is impossible to know how many hours it will take.”
The train manager is responsible for ensuring the safety of travel and passengers, a role that has taken on additional meaning in times of war. Before each departure, Yaroshenko checks various WhatsApp and Telegram teams where train operators share the latest information. Last Thursday, he was alarmed by reports that a train had caught fire near the town of Vasylkiv outside Kyiv and many windows had been blown up.
Gasiuk Roman Ivanovic, an evacuation train diver, is in his cab at a stop in Lviv, making the final checks before leaving for Premisl, Poland. “I do evacuation routes from Lviv to Przemyśl. Lviv can not provide enough beds for refugees and while Europe accepts them, we must give them the opportunity to reach a safe place during the war. “Yes, our profession is a bit dangerous because we can have attacks on the road, but I still believe that the risk is low because our territorial defense units take care of our safety, controlling all the bridges and all the vulnerable places.”
It turned out that, in fact, a Russian rocket had hit a nearby fuel depot and the shock waves had broken the windows. The line was intact and Yaroshenko’s train could run as scheduled. As the war began, little things changed: there were no more fresh bedding in the sleeping carriages, as some of the washed-up areas were now under Russian occupation. Almost every train is delayed because it stops to load and unload humanitarian aid and has to wait outside the big cities if air raid warnings sound when they are about to enter. Maximum speeds have been reduced so that sabotage, accidents would be less likely to be fatal. But, remarkably, most trains continue to run. In recent years, the Ukrainian Railways have undergone a major reform program and set up a young, Western-trained management team. Kamyshin is only 37. However, he said the needs of the wartime period forced him to return to some of the old ways.
Stasenko Olexiy Volodumurovuch, 31, drives the evacuation train from Zhmerynka, Ukraine. His family remains in Zhmerynka. When asked if he plans to evacuate them, he says: “Why? Why evacuate them? “If we leave, who will be here to protect our country?” His longest journey was 17 hours. Then rest for 6 hours and go again. “Today we make the evacuation route from Zhmerynka, we left at 06:24 a.m. We will rest now and then we will go back. We have huge passengers, everyone is leaving. “It’s certainly dangerous, but we were well prepared for it.”
“We had implemented European things and became a place of discussion rather than decisions, we lost this vertical culture of administration. “In times of war, we brought it back,” he said, adding that part of this speedy decision-making will continue after the end of the war. Kamyshin said the evacuation program was now “basically complete” and that the focus of the railway leadership was now on helping to build export and customs capacity on the country’s western border to increase rail exports, as Russian progress set the south ports of Ukraine. handles much of its export trade, out of action. “Once the ports are unblocked, the cargo will flow through them again, but we will still have this crazy neighbor. And this crazy neighbor could cause trouble for years. So we have to develop these western corridors and have them as Plan B, with the option to expand them significantly at any time. “
