‘We’re Ukraine’s second army’: The workers fighting to restore the country’s bombed-out railways
In most European countries, a wave of bad weather is enough to bring train schedules to a grinding halt. In the UK, leaves on the line cause chaos.
In Ukraine, where missiles, artillery fire and mines are everyday occurrences, railway staff simply carry on fixing the track and getting the trains running again. Even under shelling.
And this is the message that Ukrainian’s railway chief Alexander Kamyshin is trying to deliver, as he stands in the newly reopened train station in Kherson, a frontline city only liberated from Russian soldiers a few days ago and still under fire.
The city was regained after Moscow ordered a withdrawal to the east banks of river Dnipro. But the Russian troops haven’t gone far; at some points they are just 400 metres away on the other side of the water.
Ukrainian soldiers who liberated the area last week have told The Independent how civilians in Kherson have come under sniper fire. Shelling booms in the background.
But in the waiting room of Kherson’s passenger terminal, Kamyshin – the 38-year-old chief of Ukraine’s national rail company Ukrzaliznytsia – explains how the first trains will arrive here in just a week, ready to bring in food and aid as well as ferrying people away from the frontline.
The track from Kyiv to Mykolaiv, a city 100km west that has been under heavy bombardment, opened this week and the connection to Kherson will be made shortly.
“We are Ukraine’s second army, we have to keep running. Boots on the ground that is our style,” says Kamyshin, as he directs a flurry traffic around him.
Yaroslav Yanushevych, the governor of Kherson is also here, as are senior railway managers, international aid workers, engineers, doctors and volunteers all busy at work.
“Until the actual moment we can run the trains, we are already here working,” Kamyshin, a father-of-two continues.
He explains how Kherson’s train terminal is open and functioning as a humanitarian hub while it waits for the carriages to start rolling in.
Residents cluster around the station’s Starlink internet connection points, some reaching out to family members for the first time in weeks to tell them they are alive.
The railway company has set up generators so residents, deprived of electricity, water and gas for months, can charge their phones.
They have partnered with World Central Kitchen (WCK), an international food aid charity, whose workers are handing out food parcels to crowds of waiting people outside. Médecins Sans Frontières, or Doctors Without Borders (MSF) – another partner – are staffing a temporary station providing consultations and medication.
“We are the first ones to bring in food, to bring in medicines, to bring in generators,” Kamyshin continues. “For many Ukrainians the railway changes their lives. We are not just running trains you can see.”
Boris, pictured with his wife Tetiana believes the arrival of the trains will mean a great deal to residents of the city
Outside, residents who are crowded around a charging point say it is a lifeline.
“The opening of the track will make a huge difference for us, we have been cut off from the rest of Ukraine since March,” says Boris, 50, a local businessman who together with his wife Tetiana, 44 are waiting for a food parcel.
Boris’s brother, Maxim, director of a local cultural institute, talks of how he spent four days in a Russian-held basement interrogation centre as they beat and tortured him for information.
When he was released he had to make the treacherous journey to Ukrainian-held territory by back roads through Russian checkpoints. The rest of their family is on the east bank of the river, which is still Russian-occupied. They have no idea if they are alive as there is no internet or mobile phone connection.
Railway workers under fire and under threat of mines repair the railway track to Kherson
Families gather to charge their phones at Kherson train station which has generators set up
