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2/24/2023
In marking the one-year anniversary of Russia's brutal invasion of Ukraine, the Global Ukraine Rail Task Force today praised Ukrainian Railways (UZ) for continuing to transport people and freight under extreme and dangerous conditions.
With airspace in Ukraine closed, rail is the chief option for moving food, equipment, arms and refugees as well as diplomats and heads of state. Over 4 million refugees, 1 million of them children, have been "moved safely and with remarkable kindness," task force officials said in a press release.
"The stations and tracks have been under increasing Russian fire for a year, leaving 356 [UZ] employees killed and hundreds more injured. As soon as these tracks are taken out, they are repaired almost instantaneously by Ukrainian crews who risk their lives to do so," they said.
The task force was formed in the first months after Russia’s invasion. Co-chaired by former U.S. Federal Railroad Administrator Jolene Molitoris, the task force has helped coordinate some of the humanitarian efforts to help UZ and Ukraine. Currently, the group is running a donation campaign to support the families of injured or killed railway workers.
Task force members have echoed German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and other European Union leaders who earlier this year called for the creation of a new "Marshall Plan" to rebuild Ukraine after the war. The Marshall Plan was a U.S.-sponsored initiative that helped revive western Europe’s economies after World War II.
"In the long term, the task force is looking to a new Marshall Plan to reorient the entire rail sector network toward the European Union and away from its previous integration with Russia," task force officials said.
On Feb. 20, UZ safely transported President Joe Biden on a high-risk, 20-hour round-trip between Poland and Kyiv, Ukraine, so that he could meet with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.