Home » World » With military precision, the crucial runway in Ukraine is being repaired

With military precision, the crucial runway in Ukraine is being repaired

NOS

News from the NOStoday, 10:43

  • Sander van Hoorn

    Reporter, now in Ukraine

  • Chiem Balduk

    Foreign publisher

  • Sander van Hoorn

    Reporter, now in Ukraine

  • Chiem Balduk

    Foreign publisher

“Look, there’s a rocket near the runway. And you see that spot over there? We filled an impact crater there.” The driver points out the points along the track during the journey on the reopened railway between Kharkov and the liberated city Balaklia. After a while the train passes a bunker. That was a Russian position, says the driver. From now on we will drive through the liberated territory.

Four days after the Ukrainians took back Balakliya, the trains were again running on the tracks. Day and night, mines were cleared along the way, broken rails were replaced, and broken overhead cables were removed. Ukrzaliznytsja railway company operates with military discipline. “A quick recovery is key to winning this war,” said 38-year-old railroad chief Oleksandr Kamyshin.

The track may have been repaired, but the train can’t really accelerate. As the overhead cables have not yet been repaired, a diesel train from the Kiev region is deployed. The carriages contain the timetable and a map of the subway of the capital. The driver also takes some getting used to: instead of taking the express train to the airport, he now drives a diesel through the newly vacated area.

For now, Balakliya is the last station, the track to freed Izhum has yet to be cleared of mines:

NAS / Damage to Kersten

The green railway lines in the free zone are in use, the yellow ones partially (for example only freight trains)

“For many people, the train is the only way to travel,” says the driver. “I’m too old to ride through the hills here,” said one passenger. Another is happy not to have to go by car: “Then it will take an hour and a half because many roads are closed, now I’m at work in half an hour”. The train is full. “I fled Balakliya when the Russians arrived,” says a woman with a lot of luggage. “I’m going back now.”

Balakliya station is busy. There is a generator where people charge their phones. There is no electricity in the whole village. Because not only are the train’s overhead cables broken; throughout the cleared area, the electric cables hang freely along the pylons.

During the war, the railway network played an essential role in the Ukrainian railway country. “Without railway, there are no evacuations, humanitarian aid and diplomacy”, sums up the Kamyshin railroad chief. From Macron to Scholz and from Rutte to Johnson: all the government leaders who have visited Ukraine in recent months have traveled by train. The railroad could also offer a (limited) solution to replace seaborne grain exports.

Last week, Ukraine recorded a major victory on the battlefield and rail network with the recapture of the Kupyansk interchange. As a result, goods and troops can no longer be transported by train from Russia to much of the occupied Lugansk region. The important cities of Lysychansk and Severodonetsk are therefore more vulnerable to a Ukrainian offensive.

NOS

Situation in Ukraine on 3 October

Rapid track repair in cleared areas is not without risk. 231,000 people work for the railway company. 250 employees were killed, 454 were injured. About 8,000 employees are part of the armed forces.

At a level crossing between Balakliya and Izhum, Superintendent Vladim Dovichok keeps us waiting for a while. Not on a train, but on an explosion. A moment later, a plume of smoke rises. They are not just mines, Dovistjok says. There are also unexploded rockets all along the runway. “In some places even the rails need to be replaced. And the overhead lines are cut off along almost the entire route.”

Think that in a month at least one diesel train will be able to use this route again. Much later will come the repair work on the road that crosses the railway. The rail network is now more important.

  • NOS

    Damage to the railway in the Kharkov region

  • NOS

    Damage to the railway in the Kharkov region

  • NOS

    Damage to the railway in the Kharkov region

  • NOS

    Damage to the railway in the Kharkov region

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Aid from the West is more than welcome for the railway operation, says director Kamyshin. “At the moment we mainly need freight wagons, we have a shortage of them.” The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development has committed millions of euros in aid to the railway company.

Kamyshin has enough work for now. Behind the front line, tens of thousands of kilometers of tracks and overhead cables are still waiting to be cleared and repaired. Another great task awaits for the future: converting the wide Ukrainian track into European standards to foster integration with the European Union.

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