KEEPING THEM ROLLING.

The evacuation trains continue to roll in Ukraine.

Ukrainian Railways employs more than 230,000 people, and almost all its employees have stayed in the country to work, according to Oleksandr Kamyshin, the company’s CEO. While stations in the areas under Russian occupation are now closed, the trains have continued running even to cities like Kharkiv, which has been under constant Russian fire.

Since the war started 64 employees have died and 71 have been injured, he said, counting incidents at work and those at the homes of employees.

“If the track is blown up, we repair it. If we can get somewhere, we go. It may be dangerous for our staff, but then that train can save thousands of other people from danger,” said Kamyshin, in an interview at Kyiv’s central station. He and a small “mobile command centre” of seven people has spent the last month crisscrossing the country on trains, to show support for staff working in all parts of the country.

The return workings are carrying supplies to people persevering in the cities and towns.  Although most of the evacuations have taken place, the freight capabilities will be useful if the Black Sea ports remain closed.

Kamyshin said the evacuation programme is now “basically done”, and the focus of the railway leadership is now on helping to build export and customs capacity on the country’s western borders to increase rail exports, after the Russian advance has put Ukraine’s southern ports, which handle much of its export trade, out of action.

“Once the ports are unblocked the cargo will flow through them again, but we will still have this crazy neighbour. And this crazy neighbour could make problems for years. So we need to develop these western corridors, and have them as Plan B, with the option to extend them significantly at any moment.”

The trains continue to run.