Paul Workman: A 'lifeline' for Ukraine, trains now carry families home
It is 9 p.m. on Saturday, Oct. 8 and we are sitting in a train just inside Ukraine. A very slow, stop-and-start train from Poland. We’re in a sleeper coach, car 29, in seats 82 through 85. It’s comfortable, except for the long wait as Ukrainian border guards confirm passenger details. We surrender our passports to a young woman in military dress, with lips glossed in red. She smiles as she adds mine to a stack of at least 50 passports cradled in her left hand.
It is so different now, so much calmer than just a few months ago when roads, trains and buses were jammed with millions of people leaving, desperate to save their lives. Fretfully looking back to witness their towns, villages and neighbourhoods under Russian bombardment. The middle-aged conductor in car 29 has a small room at the end of the coach. When I pass by, she’s sharing dinner out of a plastic container with a colleague. It looks cosy.
It feels like the war is turning. One tweet asks what movie Putin is watching tonight: A Bridge Too Far? Ukrainians are scathing in their comments. People are daring to use the word “collapse” to describe the fitful performance of the great Russian army—unable to hold territory it brutally seized, looted and destroyed just months ago. Soldiers are deserting. Young men are refusing to fight. Putin is rabidly mocked on Ukrainian social media.
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