The train conductor’s first tap on the door could barely be heard over the rumble of the Odesa sleeper changing tracks on the outskirts of Kyiv.
Lifting the blind barely made the two-bunk cabin any brighter. It was a grey dawn, the wet streets plastered with leaves, as early commuters drove to work with headlamps and wipers on after another night of air-raid sirens and explosions.
Russia had hit the Ukrainian capital with more missiles and drones, and many of Kyiv’s 3.5 million people were starting another day without electricity – lights out, the shower cold, the kettle dead, the wifi down.
Moscow is pounding an energy grid already badly weakened by nearly five years of all-out war, destroying the costly and dangerous repair work done by Ukraine in recent months to keep power, heat and water flowing this winter.
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The International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants for top Russian defence figures in 2024 over their country’s strikes on Ukrainian infrastructure. But war crimes allegations have not deterred the Kremlin from expanding its campaign, and now a rail network that has run reliably throughout the war is also under daily attack.
A few hours before the sleeper to Kyiv pulled out of Odesa, a Russian jet-powered drone had slammed into a station platform in Dnipro in eastern Ukraine. Fifteen people were killed and 14 injured as they waited to board a local train.
When the night train set off, the conductor went from compartment to compartment, speaking quietly but sternly to all the passengers in her care.
“If we have to evacuate,” she said, “disembark quickly, follow my instructions and do not panic.” Then she wished each of them a pleasant journey and a good sleep.
Dozens of trains are now evacuated every day, particularly in eastern and southern Ukraine, and long-distance journeys across the vast country may face several evacuations en route, resulting in delays that can stretch for more than 10 hours.
It is a new and severe challenge for Ukraine’s state train operator Ukrzaliznytsia, and for passengers and cargo customers who almost took the rail system for granted after it showed such resilience following Russia’s full-scale invasion in February 2022.
Having evacuated millions of people to safety, it continued to run a huge – and remarkably punctual – timetable of services, moving goods in and out of the country, delivering arms and other supplies to the military, and bringing foreign leaders to Kyiv.
Only now are Russian drones able to consistently strike moving trains, due to advances in technology that have made them faster, more accurate and harder to shoot down or divert using electronic jamming.
Ukrzaliznytsia has suffered more than 1,700 attacks on its trains, stations, depots and other infrastructure in 2026, and more than half of the 500 or so Ukrainian locomotives destroyed or damaged since 2022 have been hit this year. More than 40 railway workers have been killed on duty during the war, and about 300 injured.
In September alone, nearly 6,000 trains had to be evacuated around Ukraine, an average of about 200 such stoppages each day.
Trains are often evacuated close to stations or other buildings that offer cover, but sometimes hundreds of passengers find themselves in open countryside, with little protection from the elements or the threat of drones. During winter, they might have to endure heavy snowfall and temperatures of -20 degrees.
Officials say hundreds of mobile air-raid shelters are being installed across the country, with priority given to sites that are of critical importance to the network and where other protection from air strikes is lacking.
Ukrzaliznytsia now monitors its services and incoming Russian threats in real time from command centres, so it can order train crews to evacuate passengers before any 600km/h jet drones near their location. The company says last Thursday’s attack on Dnipro station was so deadly because people did not leave the platform as instructed.
As the sleeper from Odesa trundled through Kyiv, the conductor served coffee and tea and then – with none of the delicacy of her earlier knock – rapped on each compartment door that was still firmly shut.
“Time to get up,” she called out as she strode along the corridor. “Do you hear me, passengers? We are arriving in Kyiv.”
Nine alert-free hours after leaving Odesa we were pulling in just a whisker late, thankful not to have been forced – until now – to give up the warm comfort of our beds.
[ Daniel McLaughlin: The young Ukrainians risking all to flee Russian occupation Opens in new window ]
