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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