For the past eight years, Anton Lytvynov, a stage director at Lviv National Opera, has celebrated New Year in Kyiv with his three friends – Sandra, Mykhailo, and Volodymyr.
However, on Dec. 31, 2022, work commitments kept Lytvynov in Lviv longer than he had expected. Determined to reunite with his closest friends all the same, Lytvynov decided to ring in the New Year on the train, planning to meet with them on Jan. 1.
Late at night, he traversed the empty, narrow corridor of the Lviv-Kyiv train to his dimly lit yet warm compartment. As the train gradually set off, the sound of its wheels on the tracks built into a steady rumble.
Thus began a journey that would prove as exciting as the destination itself.
Sitting alone on one of his compartment’s dark-red leather beds, Lytvynov overheard people speaking loudly in the compartment next to his.
"I went to them to ask if they wanted to celebrate the New Year together, and they agreed," Lytvynov says.
The moment he heard the names of his fellow travelers, Lytvynov was thunderstruck: The people sitting next to him were named Sandra, Mykhailo, and Volodymyr – just like the friends he was traveling to see.
"It felt like a scene from a TV series," Lytvynov laughs. The four bonded instantly, exchanged contact information, and remain in touch to this day.
Since Ukraine shut down its airports in February 2022, trains operated by the state-owned railway, Ukrzaliznytsia, have become one of the primary and perhaps the easiest means of travel both within Ukraine and abroad. Countless fascinating encounters and stories unfolded in the corridors and compartments of Ukrainian trains since then.
Tetiana Kohut, a 37-year-old train attendant, often sees strangers find common ground while traveling. It’s not surprising, she notes: in the intimate space of a train compartment during long journeys, shared everyday rituals – like sleeping or sipping tea – create a cozy atmosphere, naturally fostering connections among passengers.
Trains have also evolved into unexpected hubs for celebrity encounters and important connections, often paving the way to shared projects and other new opportunities.
War changes everything
Since the start of Russia’s full-scale war, Ukrainian trains have borne witness to more tears of sorrow, sadness, and grief than ever before.
Just a day after Russian troops began heavily bombarding Ukrainian cities in late February 2022, Kohut was working on her regular route from Lviv, her hometown, to Novooleksiivka in Kherson Oblast. But her train never reached the destination. The village, located on the east bank of the Dnipro River in Kherson Oblast, was swiftly occupied by the Russians.
"We reached Zaporizhzhia and were told that we could not go further," Kohut says. "We also were ordered to allow everyone on the train, not only those with tickets. We became an evacuation train."
A train attendant of nearly 20 years, Kohut heard the sounds of explosions for the first time that day in Zaporizhzhia. She also saw hundreds of people at the station. Many of them were crying, and others looked lost and heartbroken, leaving suitcases on the platform as they boarded the lifesaving train to escape the war.
The first-class sleeping car she worked in was designed to accommodate 20 people but ended up carrying nearly 200, Kohut says. "A woman from Zaporizhzhia helped me count the passengers and wrote a heartwarming letter to thank us."
The start of the all-out war changed everything for Kohut and many other train attendants across Ukraine. In the first few months of the invasion, they worked without breaks, despite their exhaustion, to ensure everyone who wanted to escape the war could board their trains. The war also heightened the hazards of their work, as Russian attacks occasionally target train stations. Over 600 Ukrzaliznytsia employees have been killed since Feb. 24, 2022.
Kohut says she lost colleagues in the Aug. 24, 2022 Russian attack on Chaplyne, Dnipropetrovsk Oblast, when a passenger train and a residential area were hit, killing a total of 25 people. One of her close friends, a fellow train attendant, was seriously injured in the attack.
Once filled with laughter and excitement for upcoming travels, the train cars are now often filled with crying, silence, or the heavy sighs of people sharing the pain brought by Russia’s war. "We have to be doctors… We have to be psychologists for our passengers now," says Kohut.
Despite the dangers, trains have been also the primary means of traveling to Ukraine for many of the world's top politicians and celebrities, with over 700 diplomatic missions arriving in Ukraine by train since the start of the invasion.
Kohut has had the fortune to work on many such routes, and has met former U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson, Polish President Andrzej Duda, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, and others.
"Right now, all the world-famous celebrities are traveling (to Ukraine) by train. I only ever saw them on TV before, and serving them now is just so pleasant, it’s indescribable," says Kohut.
Unexpected tears
A chance encounter on a train initially brought tears to the eyes of Kyiv resident Olha Hrianyk, and led her to experience grief she thought she would never endure again.
Hrianyk, 63, and her husband were traveling from Chernivtsi to the capital last May when a tall young man entered their compartment. The couple noticed a very familiar and cherished unit badge on his backpack.
"'Are you from the Azov brigade?' My husband asked," Hrianyk recalls. "He said: 'How do you know?'"
"I told him that our son was an Azov fighter."
Hrianyk's son Oleksandr helped liberate Kyiv Oblast in the early months of the full-scale war. He was then transferred to defend Mariupol, ending up at the Azovstal steel plant, the last Ukrainian stronghold in the city, where he was killed on May 8, 2022. He was 29.
Vladyslav, the young man they accidentally met on the train, was undergoing training to join Azov. Some of his commanders had known Hrianyk’s son Oleksandr well: "He told us it was a great honor for him to meet us," Hrianyk says.
The elderly couple and the young soldier talked until late at night, opening their hearts and sharing stories about military service and the war: "I looked at him thinking, 'Son, you’re so bright, you're so proud to be there (in Azov). What amazing young people we have,'" says Hrianyk.
"In that brief time, that child became like family to me."
They shared phone numbers and kept in touch with Vladyslav while he was undergoing military training in Kyiv, often inviting him over for dinner or simply to rest after being on duty.
One day last September, Vladyslav's mother suddenly called Hrianyk, expressing relief at finally contacting the couple her son had accidentally met on the train and had told her a lot about. But then she delivered some heartbreaking news: Vladyslav had been killed in combat near Bakhmut. He was only 19.
"We printed his portrait and put it at the fallen soldiers’ memorial (next to the St. Michael’s Cathedral in Kyiv). (The portrait of) our Oleksandr is there too," Hrianyk says.
“Now, as we come there to see our Sasha, we come to see Vlad, too.”
Turning words into actions
For many Ukrainians, meetings on trains have sparked new ideas and fruitful collaborations for their projects or businesses.
Vinnytsia-based Nataliia Kovalchuk, a content creator for an NGO called the National Network of Local Philanthropy Development, recalls numerous captivating experiences during her work trips across Ukraine.
"My team laughs at me when I say, ‘You’ll never believe it, but I met someone on the train again,’" Kovalchuk says.
During her railway journeys, Kovalchuk always buys a cup of hot tea – a true gem of Ukrainian train travel, served by train attendants in a special glass with a metal cup holder. Little did she know that accidentally spilling her tea onto a nearby passenger's belongings would lead to another valuable connection.
Surprisingly, the spilled tea did not lead to bad feelings, but helped Kovalchuk bond with the woman whose belongings she had soaked. It turned out that the woman worked at a center for the physical and psychological rehabilitation of Ukrainian soldiers.
Kovalchuk donated some books for the soldiers undergoing rehabilitation there and helped the center boost its social media presence to attract more funding in the future.
Now she is planning to invite some of the war veterans from the center to give a lecture to local young people and her organization on inclusivity and treatment of people with disabilities in Ukraine.
And all this became possible thanks to a chance encounter on a train.
Note from the author:
Hi! Daria Shulzhenko here. I wrote this piece for you. Since the first day of Russia's all-out war, I have been working almost non-stop to tell the stories of those affected by Russia’s brutal aggression. By telling all those painful stories, we are helping to keep the world informed about the reality of Russia’s war against Ukraine. By becoming the Kyiv Independent's member, you can help us continue telling the world the truth about this war
Kate Tsurkan
