War doesn't stop Ukrainian Railways  

By Julie Sneider, Senior Editor 

The war in Ukraine that began when Russia invaded the country on Feb. 24, 2022, hasn’t stopped Ukrainian Railways (UZ) from moving the nation’s people and freight over the past three years, even under extreme and dangerous conditions. 

With airspace in Ukraine closed, rail is the primary mode of transport for moving food, equipment, arms and people, including diplomats and heads of state who have visited the country under tight security. Among those dignitaries who’ve traveled there are the leaders of all G7 nations, including President Joe Biden in February 2023. 

Ukrainian rail workers have kept the trains running despite Russia’s ongoing strikes on critical infrastructure, including railway and energy. As of November 2024, at least 126 train stations and over 500 kilometers (about 311 miles) of track have been damaged due to daily attacks on the railway, according to a January 2025 report by World Bank Group.  

Worse yet, 792 Ukrainian workers have been killed, 2,339 have been wounded and 685 have lost their homes due to shelling, says Volodymyr Shemayev, the railroad’s deputy director of corporate finance. UZ also has lost personnel as former rail workers died or were captured while serving in the Ukrainian military. 

The state-owned UZ is the only railway in Ukraine and currently employs about 180,000, down by thousands since before the war started but still more than four times the size of the largest U.S. railroad, says Shemayev, who spoke with RailPrime on Feb. 14 about the railway’s status during the war. 

The railroad is unable to fill many vacancies during the war “because we are fighting for our existence every day,” Shemayev says. “For those [former rail workers] who return from the military there is program for rehabilitation, and it's called the Iron Family. There is another program for their relatives.” 

A breakdown of UZ’s cargo volume in 2024: 33% manganese ore, 25% grain and griding products,11% building products, 11% coal, 6% ferrous metals, 2% cement and 12% miscellaneous. Ukrainian Railways

Resiliency under fire 

The railway has received praise from around the world for its resiliency in keeping the trains running despite the daily strikes. Shemayev cites several reasons for that resiliency, but one is that the railroad’s “under-one-roof” corporate structure is an advantage during wartime.  

That tight structure of management is vital to dispatching trackworkers deployed along the rail network to restore service and damaged infrastructure as quickly as possible, he says. Production units are sent out immediately to a site to restore electric catenary service if it’s down; at the same time, diesel trains can operate on rail lines when there’s an electricity shortage.  

Moreover, UZ operates a “highly developed network” where rerouting is possible, Shemayev says, adding: “It’s not just one line from Kyiv to Poland, there are maybe 15 options.”  

After the war started in 2022, the railway’s cargo turnover plunged to about half of what it was before the war; the same was true for passenger traffic, which fell off by about 40%. Although cargo traffic has recovered somewhat, Russian occupation of certain areas restricts some shippers from moving freight via UZ. For instance, two major steel mills located in Mariupol, which the Russian military now controls, can no longer use Ukrainian Railways. 

In 2024, UZ’s commodity breakdown of cargo transported was 33% manganese ore, 25% grain and griding products,11% building products, 11% coal, 6% ferrous metals, 2% cement and 12% miscellaneous.  

Three main factors contributed to UZ’s increased cargo turnover in 2024, according to a business report shared by Shemayev: growth in iron ore transportation through a stable export corridor via ports and an increase in demand from foreign metallurgical  enterprises; increase in grain transportation due to a significant reduction in the impact of the port blockade in 2023; and growth in construction materials transported as infrastructure destroyed during the war is rebuilt.  

The railroad also is key to Ukraine’s military logistics, but security reasons prevented Shemayev from discussing that side of the railway’s business. 

Meanwhile, UZ passenger-rail travel rose last year on international and domestic routes, especially as UZ establishes new connections in partnership with European carriers. For example, there’s now a route from Kyiv to Budapest, a number of routes to Poland, and connections through western cities in Ukraine to Czech Republic, Slovakia and Austria, according to Shemayev. 

Foreign partnerships help keep UZ on track 

In addition to the hard work and resiliency of UZ workers, a key factor in keeping the railroad on track during the war has been strong support from foreign partnerships – governments, nonprofit entities, foundations and private-sector companies that have contributed supplies, equipment, funding and food. 

“For example, if we talk about the U.S., the very first year of the war we received a support package from Wabtec ... with spare parts for the diesel locomotives that we operate,” says Shemayev.  

Additionally, businessman and philanthropist Howard Buffett and his Howard G. Buffett Foundation began a humanitarian mission to Ukraine in 2022 that included support for the railroad. One example is the “food train,” a restaurant on wheels that delivers hot meals to people on the front lines. UZ retrofitted a passenger train with restaurant equipment so that professional chefs could cook and deliver meals as the food train traveled to Ukrainian cities located in seriously damaged territories, Shemayev says.  

Future support from the foundation may include donated equipment for the repair of passenger rail cars and train depots, as well as funding for purchasing rolling stock. In 2024, Buffett announced the foundation would provide more than $800 million in support to Ukraine. 

Meanwhile, the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) Economic Resilience Activity (ERA) in early January announced the delivery of high-capacity generators to key rail border crossings to ensure they remain operational during electricity outages, Shemayev says. The USAID ERA delivered and installed a total of 10 generators at six crossing points on the Hungary, Poland, Romania and Moldova borders, according to a USAID ERA press release. The average monthly cargo export through those points was 1.12 million tons between December 2023 to November 2024. UZ trains arrive at their destinations on time, so the generators will help maintain a stable power supply so that those deliveries can continue, USAID ERA officials said in the release. 

Another form of support has come from the Global Ukraine Rail Task Force, which has collected almost $400,000 and directly provided the railway’s labor unions and train drivers with protective equipment, food packages and generators, according to Shemayev.  

Formed just two weeks after the Russian invasion, the task force is co-chaired by Jolene Molitoris, who served as administrator of the Federal Railroad Administration under the President Bill Clinton administration, and Nick Brooks, secretary general of ALLRAIL, a European nonprofit association of passenger-rail companies. The task force members are individuals from the United States, the European Union (EU) and United Kingdom who meet almost weekly online to stay informed about UZ developments. The task force has organized several donation campaigns for “highly needed” equipment, food and other support for railway workers. “We are very thankful for the task force’s support,” Shemayev says. 

Financing the reconstruction efforts 

At UZ, Shemayev’s responsibilities include securing and overseeing rail-project financing through international financial institutions like the World Bank and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD).  

Since 2022, UZ has entered into three agreements with the EBRD. The first involved about $207 million to finance emergency capital expenditures, such as steel rail, fastening systems, hotboxes and battery shunts needed to restore damaged infrastructure. After Russia took over Mariupol, Ukraine lost access to a domestic manufacturer of steel rail and now outsources it from Japan, China and Europe. 

The second and third financing agreements with the EBRD were signed in December 2024 for the procurement of decentralized electricity-generating facilities and electric locomotives, Shemayev says. 

Through the Ukraine Relief, Recovery, Reconstruction and Reform Trust Fund, the World Bank has provided financial assistance for various rail projects, starting in 2023 with funding for the purchase of 200 flat-bed wagons needed for container transportation, plus bridge restoration equipment. The latter was necessary for 98 rail bridges and engineering structures damaged during the war; so far, 44 bridges and engineering structures have been restored to operational capacity, Shemayev says.  

More recently, through the Repairing Essential Logistics Infrastructure and Network Connectivity (RELINC) program, the World Bank issued a $190 million grant to support the railway’s procurement of electric locomotives. In addition, the railway obtained an additional loan through the EBRD to support what is a $311 million procurement of up to 80 electric locomotives that will be used for freight-rail transportation. 

“That will be the biggest fleet modernization project in the history of Ukrainian Railways under Ukrainian independence,” Shemayev says, noting that much of its locomotive fleet dates to the Soviet Union era. 

‘We did not feel alone’ 

Looking ahead, the railway’s post-war reconstruction path will depend on the war’s outcome. The first and highest priority will be to fully restore the network, including those areas difficult to reach now due to military hostilities, he says. 

Another discussion focuses on reforming Ukraine’s railway sector per European legislation should Ukraine join the EU. There, the railway market is open, where railway operators can compete against each other on the same network. That would require upgrading Ukraine’s Soviet-era track gauge of 1520-mm to the European track gauge of 1435-mm. UZ is already working on a few projects to upgrade outdated rail lines in western Ukraine to European-standard lines. 

After the war, the railway will ramp up its efforts to meet European standards so that UZ can pursue freight-rail business opportunities over Ukraine’s borders with Europe. Plans to modernize passenger trains also will be necessary to remain competitive once air travel in Ukraine is restored, Shemayev says.  

Before wrapping up the interview with RailPrime, Shemayev emphasized the support UZ has received from other countries over the past three years. They include Japan, which sent 25,000 metric tons of Nippon Steel-made rail plus construction equipment; Switzerland, which provided rail fastening systems; the SNCF railway operator in France and Deutsche Bahn in Germany donated equipment; and Network Rail in the United Kingdom contributed bridge restoration equipment. 

“So basically, we for real did not feel alone,” says Shemayev. “It was amazing how all [these] countries and others have been delivering their support for us to use during these dramatic times.”