In the train station of Kharkivin the martyred eastern ukraine, one of the rituals of the day is being celebrated. Screeching like a bird, loaded like an anthill with long corridors, one of the long-distance trains is arriving at the terminus. The vehicle is punctual like a Swiss watch, and the organization, finicky. Built in 1868, the station became one of the largest in the Russian Empire -its first train left for Moscow-, and was destroyed during World War II, but its current appearance looks like a movie set. It is a spartan place, imposing and functional, now slightly nibbled by the war started this year by the Russian President Vladimir Putin.
It is the stewardess Masha Cepriibha, who has had the long shift today, along with her colleagues. Maybe later, when she’s done, she’ll rest for a while. The woman gets off the train and doesn’t complain. She has been in this job for 15 years and, before her, also her grandfather, during World War II, was a machinist for the railway transport company. But Masha, who has never left her job since she started war in ukraine, does not seem to pay much attention to the hostile historical moment that he has had to live. “It’s the traffic controllers and signalmen who don’t save. When there are bombings, they divert us, we quickly change the route. There is a great organization,” he says proudly.
Since the start of the Russo-Ukrainian war last February, the air transport system of Ukraine has been practically uselessbut the rail network has never collapsed. Thus, it has become a key part of the ukrainian resistance before the Russian invasion. With a network of around 20,000 kilometers of tracks whose current fabric dates back to Soviet times and which today manages the Ukrzaliznytsia state companyUkrainian trains have continued to travel to all unoccupied areas of the country, carrying people, goods and aid from the West.
More than a million evacuees
“From this station alone we have evacuated a million people since the start of the conflict,” says Mikhail Makarenko, the Kharkov station chief who was a policeman in another life. Makarenko says that, according to him, one of the secrets of the resilience of the network resides in the personnel, who “mostly remained in their jobs”, but also in the coordination in communications with the armed forces that report on the security situation, and in the pre-existing system of railways of the country, which allow multiple diversions in case of attacks.
“We have a very solid system, so even in the event of attacks, we have the capacity to react. We have, for example, the possibility of diverting our trains so that passengers reach their destination even through longer journeys,” Makarenko reasons. “The only trains we have canceled are the ones going to the areas that are now under Russian occupation,” he adds, explaining that the repair of damaged pathways it has been done constantly since the beginning of the conflict.
The Ukrainians have accepted the merits of their trains with an honorable lack of complexes, although the truth is that this system has not been immune to the conflict either. On the contrary, the price paid has been high. According to the latest figures provided to this newspaper, at least 182 railwaymen have died since the beginning of the war and more than 269 have been injured. On the other hand, the head of the state company Ukrzaliznytsia, Oleksandr Kamyshin, also assures that the Freight transport has been reduced by 40%.
escape route
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In a war that has not spared civilians, one of the cruelest attacks was the one that occurred on April 8 in the station of Kramatorsk. Dozens of people lost their lives there. The incident, however, has not prevented Ukrainian trains from continuing to operate and evacuating citizens. In fact, according to official figures from the Ukrainian government, almost four million people have used the railway network in recent months to flee the war to other parts of Ukraine.
It has been a difficult test for workers who maintain contact with the public on a daily basis. “Since the beginning of the war, people’s behavior has changed a lot. Now, everyone is sad and nervous,” he says. Anatoly Gregovićcoordinator of the operations in the cabins and railway clerk for 36 years. “Mentally this is much more difficult to manage,” she adds, explaining that, to this, the new precautions that must be taken, such as traveling with the blinds fully lowered at night so that the light does not filter in and the train can move forward in the dark.