"Be brave enough to be Ukrainian", reads a sign on the night train from Przemysl (Poland) to Kyiv, one of the few ways to enter the country since the beginning of the Russian invasion. No need to ask the workers of the state railway company, Ukrzaliznitsia.
"Not a single one has asked not to work on the lines that pass near combat zones or occupied areas," proudly explains Alexander Shevchenko, head of customer service, 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 died, hundreds have been wounded and three remain captured.
"Railway workers, like the army, have had no rest since the first days of the invasion. Many lives depend on how efficient we are in our work", says Natàlia Kudritx, reviewer, who last year helped keep thousands of children away from the bombs and now covers the line in Kherson. "I didn't consider stopping, we had to save lives." He remembers a mother who handed him two small children to put on the train, even though there was no room for her. Or a father who traveled 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 patterns in the seasons have nothing to do with those of then, but they are just as anomalous. In Poland's passport control, the only Ukrainians are women and children. So the train starts, at 8:28 p.m., the curtains come down. For safety, the glasses are coated with plastic on the inside, so that in the event of an explosion they do not cause damage.
Soon, armed Ukrainian military personnel will come through to check passports and the train won't start until they check the last passenger. Meanwhile, in the comfortable sleeping cars, the strangers share confidences and food united by a curious sense of solidarity before letting themselves be swayed by the train's rumbling and trying to sleep. At seven in the morning, the corridors are filled with activity as an employee offers hot drinks to passengers. At 9.04 in the morning, we arrive punctually in Kyiv and the platform becomes a scene of emotional reunions.
The punctuality of Ukrainian railways, better than that of many EU countries even in wartime, is a source of pride for the company, which claims that it has not canceled a single train since the beginning of the invasion. In April, for example, 94% of trains arrived on time at their destination, including the one that crosses the country from end to end, connecting Kherson with Lviv and which was recently attacked by a Russian missile. "That's how strong our determination is," says Shevchenko. In times as uncertain as these, the certainty that the trains continue to operate gives hope to the country.
The railways have become a powerful symbol of Ukraine's resistance to the invader. The second army, as they call it, has made it possible to evacuate four million refugees, transport hundreds of thousands of tons of humanitarian aid, deploy troops and deliver weapons and ammunition throughout the country. Railways are the backbone of Ukrainian logistics and their resilience has been key to sustaining the economy, reviving foreign trade and reducing financial needs.
With the war, the old weaknesses (an overly extensive network and overstaffing, mainly) have become their strengths. Having such a vast network allows them to divert traffic easily and redouble the protection of certain convoys, for example those carrying weapons or international leaders, as there are always alternative routes. "There are parts of the network that don't appear on the maps and this allows us to move material along routes unknown to the enemy," says Shevchenko.
Of the latter, around 15,000 enlisted in the army and others have left the country. The layoffs have not been noticed, says the company, which since 2014, following the signing of the Association Agreement between the EU and Ukraine, accelerated reforms to align with European standards "in all senses", recalls Oleh Vassiliev, from the State University of Railway Transport. In 2021 Ukrzaliznitsia finally got out of the red numbers.
Although battered by the war, this strategy has received an additional boost thanks to the interest of other European countries in cooperating with Ukraine. The negative side that the network was conceived in the time of the USSR to deploy military operations now has the disadvantage that "the aggressor troops can also use this network to support their army", says Vasiliev. This is the reason why, while the expected counter-offensive is coming, the Ukrainian armed forces are intensively attacking railway junctions in areas occupied by Russia. Each army has its mission. And now the favorite of number two is to reach the liberated areas. "With us comes civilization".
