By Elena Alexeeva | 2026-04-15

Ukraine's state railway company, Ukrzaliznytsia, has kept the country moving under relentless Russian bombardment, evacuating civilians, transporting troops and carrying the wounded to safety.

Now, it is dismantling the Soviet infrastructure that once tied it to Russia and building new track in the European standard. The railway that helped sell Ukraine's dependence on Moscow is becoming the road into Europe.

Breaking with the Soviet past

For decades, Ukraine's railways ran on the Soviet-era track gauge of 1,520 millimeters, a standard promoted by Vladimir Yakunin, who ran Russian Railways from 2005 to 2015 and championed the concept of "Space 1520." The idea held that a shared track width transcended national borders. In practice, it kept Ukraine locked into Russia's infrastructure orbit as a lesser partner.

Since Russia's full-scale invasion began, Ukrzaliznytsia has been dismantling that model. Ukraine is now building its first stretch of European-gauge track, 1,435 millimeters wide, running 70 kilometers (43 miles) from the Polish border to Sknyliv station near Lviv.

The European Union (EU) is co-financing the project: €73.7 million comes from an EU grant, with Ukraine's federal budget covering the other half. Construction is scheduled to finish in late 2027.

The project is part of Ukraine's integration into the Trans-European Transport Network (TEN-T). A separate stretch between Chop and Uzhhorod was already completed, with electrification scheduled for this year. Ukrainian officials also note a strategic benefit: changing the track gauge will make it harder for Russia to use the network if it ever advances further west.

Running leaner, running smarter

The war forced Ukrzaliznytsia to rebuild itself from the inside. In 2024, the company lost more than 9,000 workers to mobilization, death and evacuation. At the same time, it inherited a bloated bureaucracy that was ill-suited to wartime demands.

Under new management board chairman Oleksandr Pertsovskyi, the company cut approximately 500 middle managers -- a 25% reduction in administrative staff, industry publication Mezha reported. Production workers -- locomotive drivers, maintenance crews and railway engineers -- kept their jobs. The savings funded emergency infrastructure repairs and social support for frontline railway staff.

Digitalization drove the rest of the overhaul. Ukrzaliznytsia automated processes from ticket sales to freight traffic management, eliminating corruption risks and reducing administrative overhead.

Adapting under fire

Working on Ukraine's railways has become one of the country's most dangerous jobs. Russia has made trains, depots, and stations priority targets. Workers die not only on trips but during emergency repairs on damaged tracks in the immediate aftermath of strikes.

Russia's tactics have shifted. At the start of the war, strikes focused on stationary infrastructure. Since late 2024 and into spring 2025, Russian forces have increasingly targeted moving passenger trains and commuter rail directly, using drones guided by real-time video links.

In response, Ukrzaliznytsia overhauled its traffic management. The company created a centralized monitoring command and 15 regional monitoring teams operating around the clock, United24 Media reported. Emergency evacuation protocols were introduced after it became clear that static defense was no longer effective.

The threat is acute. During the winter of 2025–2026 alone, Russia launched around 19,000 drones at Ukrainian territory, including Iranian-developed Shaheds, known in Russia as Gerans. The transportation sector bore much of that assault.

"Russia is deliberately striking our logistical routes—this is conscious terror against civilians and civil infrastructure," Prime Minister Yuliia Svyrydenko said, as quoted by United24 Media.

The human cost

The human cost has been real. In Kharkiv region, a strike on a passenger train on the Barvinkove–Lviv–Chop route killed three people. At Slatyne station, a Russian first-person view (FPV) drone hit a commuter train carriage directly. Quick evacuation to a modular shelter saved most passengers and the crew, but a 61-year-old woman who refused to leave died.

In Odesa, 19-year-old train attendant Ilona Vovk died after evacuating passengers from a train stopped due to a drone threat.

"This 19-year-old young woman had only just begun her journey as a train attendant," Pertsovskyi said, calling her death a painful reminder of the dangers railway workers face.

Today, Ukrzaliznytsia operates specialized medical carriages that run around the clock, evacuating the wounded from front-line areas to rear hospitals. The railway has become, in effect, a hospital on tracks -- and for millions of Ukrainians, it remains the only road out.