Twelve thousand Russian attacks in one year on Ukrainian trains

On the night of February 23, 2022, Alexander Kamyshin accompanied his children to bed, took a photo of them, and minutes later sent it to the group of more than 230,000 employees of the Ukrainian railway network, which he had been running for less than a year.

Thomas Osborne
Thomas Osborne
05 March 2023 Sunday 16:24
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Twelve thousand Russian attacks in one year on Ukrainian trains

On the night of February 23, 2022, Alexander Kamyshin accompanied his children to bed, took a photo of them, and minutes later sent it to the group of more than 230,000 employees of the Ukrainian railway network, which he had been running for less than a year. . He had previously worked in private investment banking. The objective behind that gesture was to send them the message that, despite the tension in the country, life went on, like trains: they had to keep rolling. Hours later everything turned upside down.

Once it became known that Putin's troops had begun the invasion and that they were threatening to take Kyiv, he said goodbye to his family and left to take charge of one of the most complex operations that Ukraine remembers and of which they are most proud: evacuating four million people and twelve thousand pets from regions attacked by Russian forces, transporting tons of humanitarian aid to the interior of the country, mobilizing part of the weapons that were gradually delivered for the Ukrainian defense (something that he avoids talking about) and taking to Kyiv more than 300 diplomatic delegations, including Joe Biden.

“Definitely getting the American president in and out was a little more complicated than other missions, but we are concerned that every single person that travels with us reaches their destination,” Alexander says in the VIP lounge of the train station in Kyiv days before it was known that he presented his resignation letter. The reason: he had been delegated by President Volodimir Zelensky to head the office for European integration of the Ukrainian railway network.

Another challenge in this chain of challenges that has had as a priority, beyond anything else, fighting so that the trains not only do not stop rolling in the middle of the war, but also that they reach their destination on time. "There is no secret or magic behind it, they are simple management skills," explains Alexander, who over the past year has been seen permanently traveling around the country to supervise the operation of the stations, to coordinate the delivery of humanitarian aid and to thousands more tasks.

"First we discovered what we had to do and we coordinated everything so that it was done," he explains before going on to list the problems they have faced in order to fulfill their promise that the trains continue to run on schedule .

“We have lost 344 railway service workers, 788 men have been wounded and this is the highest price we have paid in this war. Added to this is the fact that we have 9,200 workers, men and women, who are fighting in the army. But the rest of the railway workers who remain in the company continue to do their job, ”he explains before delving into the question that arises in the conversations: why doesn't Russia attack the railway networks more ferociously?

"If they do it. We have had 12,000 damages to the railway structure, an average of 32 per day, but we do not report daily attacks. We go to the site and we see how we can repair the rails, the bridge, the station and return to operation, because our users do not care that something has been damaged. They care to go on the train and travel where they have to. And that's what we do,” he explains.

The company's desire is to recover connections as soon as possible. "We know that trains bring life to cities," he says. Its operation also helps to enhance that feeling of resistance of which Ukrainians are enormously proud.

“War can only end with victory. And we are getting closer. We are playing a very important role in making it happen even faster”, says Alexander. Now his new challenge will be to integrate Ukrainian trains into Europe.