- 13 hours ago
Ukraine's railways now face hundreds of Russian strikes each month. DW’s Nimisha Jaiswal travels alongside Ukrainians who rely on the trains, which even carry soldiers as close to the front lines as safety permits.
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00:02The Ukrainian railways have been a lifeline of the country through the war.
00:08With the skies closed, trains have been a critical link to flee the fighting or to reach the front lines.
00:17But now, they're increasingly under threat too.
00:25With hundreds of attacks each month forcing evacuations and delays for passenger safety.
00:32We take a closer look at what's at stake by travelling up and down from Kyiv on what is called
00:38the Unbreakable Line.
00:39This train goes from the westernmost town of Lviv to as far east as it is possible and safe for
00:45it to go right now.
00:46We're going to take it to the end of the line.
00:49The end station, Lozova, is the closest any train can go to the front lines in the Donbass.
00:59Many of the passengers are soldiers returning to duty.
01:05Botan is heading back after his first two-week break in Kyiv since he joined a tank platoon in Donetsk
01:11almost a year ago.
01:15I don't know how to put it.
01:18I was in a better mood on the way home.
01:26Being separated from my family was probably the worst part.
01:32You get used to everything else.
01:36His daughters are 15 and 9 years old.
01:39He volunteered to fight.
01:41He says he doesn't want them to be forced to flee abroad.
01:47I didn't want to leave home again.
01:49I'd got used to being at home, so of course I didn't want to go.
01:55But I pushed through it.
01:57More than me, my wife and children didn't want me to go back.
02:01But it has to be done.
02:03Someone has to do it.
02:06Botan says he's indifferent to the attacks on the trains.
02:09He's seen much worse on the front lines.
02:12He says the attacks are a sign of Russian desperation.
02:17It's because they can't achieve anything on the battlefield.
02:20They can't resolve anything on the ground.
02:23They're swarming like cockroaches.
02:28Botan hopes to see his family next in a month.
02:31They too will be taking this train to visit him near the front lines.
02:36Ukrainian Railways says there's been a sharp spike in attacks on its assets this year,
02:41including passenger trains.
02:42In May, there were 23 attacks in one day alone.
02:47This has led the railways to introduce new evacuation protocols.
02:53Lisa has already seen two evacuations.
02:55For the last two years, she's frequented this line to visit her partner on the front lines.
03:01She says things have gotten worse this year.
03:04But she's undaunted.
03:07This connection is absolutely vital to me.
03:09It means a great deal to me.
03:11It's part of my life.
03:14I'm based in Ternobyl in the West, and I try to come here once or twice a month without fail.
03:19It's part of my life. Like a work shift, so to speak.
03:27This line used to go to Kramatorsk, until it was too unsafe.
03:32Lisa has watched it shrink first to Barvinkove, then to Lozova.
03:37She's counting on it not getting shorter.
03:41Of course, it means a lot.
03:43You see, it makes you feel better emotionally, knowing that everything is fine, that I can see him with my
03:49own eyes.
03:50You only live once. You need to see your husband as often as possible.
03:55You only live once, and you're living it together. That's it. That's all the motivation.
04:05Olena says she loves the trains. For her, it's her friends and family in Lozova that keep bringing her back,
04:12as well as her clients.
04:15They get in touch, they rang, the phone just goes off non-stop and I have to go.
04:21Olena is a hair stylist. She lives with her son in Kyiv, but she returns to her hometown Lozova every
04:28six weeks for her appointments.
04:31When people from Lozova rang, I realize it's dangerous there and you might as well not go.
04:36And it's best not to go. But they ask, when are you coming? And when I say I'll be there
04:42on such and such a date, I think they calm down and think, so everything's fine, the road must be
04:47safe.
04:49Somehow, a sense of calm settles in their hearts. That means a lot to me. So, for now, we're taking
04:55the risk and going.
05:05In a little over seven hours, we make it to Lozova. It's a moment of warm reunions.
05:20But as the train prepares to head back west, it's also time for goodbyes.
05:28Yet, Maxim and Nastya are cheerful. Maxim just proposed to his girlfriend of four years.
05:34They met online after the war had started and Maxim was already deployed. These visits are all they have.
05:46I wouldn't say it's actually scary. If you want to come, you come.
05:50She tries to visit as often as work would allow. It means everything to Maxim.
05:56It's brilliant. I get a break.
05:59We can relax a bit.
06:00That's it. Everything in my head goes quiet. And that's it. No stress, no noise in my head.
06:07It's like a reset. I come here too, even though it's a completely different city, not Kyiv.
06:13But you can take a break from everything.
06:16You can take a few days to recharge and relax with your loved one.
06:21It's so much easier. Of course, I don't really want to go either.
06:25But it's still better this way.
06:26I don't like it, but it's still better.
06:29These goodbyes here are tinged with the additional sadness of not knowing when and if they will ever see each
06:35other again.
06:39Breaks from the front line are rare.
06:46And travelling east to visit is increasingly difficult.
06:54On the trains returning back to the west, there's another kind of passenger.
06:59Those fleeing the fighting and heading to safety.
07:04We return a few days later to join them on the journey.
07:09The train arrives two hours late.
07:12The Ukrainian railway website says the delay is due to hostilities.
07:18For these evacuees, it's just a little more time in the east.
07:23Around 200 people are brought to Lozova every day from front line towns across Donetsk.
07:29They travel for free on the unbreakable line in the zero wagon.
07:35There are explosions at night and this morning it was loud.
07:39And yesterday things got really bad.
07:42I've arranged everything with a neighbour who isn't planning to leave.
07:46There's an old lady there with loads of dogs and she'll look after mine.
07:50Well, where else would I take them?
07:53Svitlana was evacuated from Dushkivka and is heading to her children in the west.
07:58Hatasha was evacuated from Kramatorsk.
08:01She tells us she could no longer put off leaving.
08:06There's nothing but ruin.
08:07The villages are still standing, the private houses.
08:11But the city is being destroyed.
08:14I'm going, I don't know to whom.
08:16I was invited and I'm going, but I don't know yet.
08:22A family in Rivne has volunteered to host the Prussia.
08:26She doesn't know them.
08:28It's a difficult choice to leave home for the unknown.
08:30But people here tell us that staying is no longer an option either.
08:38Evacuations have been a regular part of Vlad's job.
08:42He describes the early days of the war.
08:46There were a great many people and they were terrified.
08:49There were children and everyone.
08:51But we had to get people out.
08:53We transported people not only from Hakiv, but also from the Donbass and from Kramatorsk.
09:00We were working flat out from the moment it all began.
09:05And things have gotten steadily worse.
09:08Vlad describes several close calls to us.
09:11A time when a station was hit minutes after his train pulled out.
09:15The engine is a prime target, as hitting it will ground the train.
09:27Under the new protocols, Vlad is also the first point of contact for monitoring teams when they decide to call
09:33for an evacuation.
09:34You need to evacuate.
09:36You need to go a safe distance.
09:38Don't stand by the carriage.
09:40You have to move as far away as possible.
09:43Because there's a threat from drones flying with cameras.
09:46They see everything directly and know where to strike.
09:51It's hard for Vlad to leave his family behind.
09:54He says his wife and his 11-year-old daughter constantly worry.
09:58But he also says there is a lack of other jobs.
10:01And working for the railways is dangerous but steady work.
10:06Everyone's scared.
10:07Of course it happens.
10:09It happens and it's scary.
10:11We're risking our lives after all.
10:14Of course it's scary.
10:15Every journey is a risk to life.
10:20And just an hour after we leave the engine.
10:23Passengers, please evacuate.
10:26A call for an evacuation.
10:29Please only take essentials.
10:31Take warm jackets because it's cold outside.
10:39We've just been asked to evacuate the train.
10:41A few minutes ago, a lot of passengers have already come out.
10:44But the conductors are right now informing the rest of the train how many passengers have refused to come off.
10:50However, it looks like most of us have gotten off and we're going to wait to find out when it's
10:54safe to get back in.
10:56We're told it's a drone threat.
10:58The passengers are calm.
11:00For them, it's yet another part of living in a country at war.
11:06Ivan is glad that his first evacuation is going smoothly.
11:10It's only his second trip since he's gotten back to work as a chief conductor.
11:14He was deployed in 2024 and soon after taken a prisoner of war.
11:20He was held in Russia for over a year before being exchanged last August on Ukraine's Independence Day.
11:30I was sustained by the belief that I would return home, faith in my loved ones, and prayer.
11:36I started the war by evacuating people from Bakhmut when it began.
11:40As soon as the war started, we were evacuating everyone from Bakhmut.
11:44And then came captivity, and so one thing after another.
11:49Ivan felt the need to return to work.
11:52These evacuations are new to him, but he's taken them in his stride.
11:58I'm used to responsibility.
12:00I've got 37 years' experience on the railways.
12:03So for me, it's nothing new.
12:04It's just a matter of memory.
12:07There's no time to relax here.
12:08You have to recall everything instantly.
12:11It's a matter of seconds.
12:16We briefly catch up with Natasha and Svetlana again.
12:20Compared to what they're fleeing, they find the threat of a single drone laughable.
12:25We're more afraid of ticks now.
12:28If the drone comes, how will we jump into that ditch and then climb out of it?
12:35After 45 minutes, the evacuation is called off.
12:39The rest of the trip is thankfully uneventful.
12:43We make it safely back to Kyiv.
12:48And even as our journey ends, many others begin.
12:53Like the rest of Ukraine, the trains too are no longer safe.
12:57But they remain a promise of connection to tens of thousands of Ukrainians on board every day.
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