Support RAIL NOW to help save lives in Ukraine

Just £20 can save a life.

That’s the message behind a major new campaign launched at Rail Live 2024 and supported by RAIL itself, to equip Ukrainian railway workers with key safety equipment.

In a session chaired by UK industry body Rail Partners, Oleg Yakovenko explained that “right now, daily”, Ukrainian railway employees are working in “very difficult circumstances”.

Ukrainian Railways’ Director of Strategy and Transformation said that people are working in “close proximity to the war zone” and that even away from the front lines, “the railway infrastructure is attacked, all the time”.

Since 2022, when Russia launched its invasion of Ukraine, more than 2,500 railway workers have been injured or killed, with around another 10,000 becoming internally displaced.

Through this, Ukrainian Railways (UZ) has played an essential role in keeping the country moving, evacuating more than four million civilians, providing a lifeline for grain exports, ensuring cities are supplied, and moving troops and injured personnel. 

UZ has identified that it needs more than 4,900 helmets and 5,700 protective vests - with just £20 enough to equip one person. The resulting ‘Kit for Kyiv’ funding campaign is supported by RAIL, working in conjunction with organiser Rail Partners, which has already co-ordinated fundraising for food parcels.

“We hope, with your support and the donations that will be collected, we’ll be able to satisfy some of this demand,” said Yakovenko.

“We’ll be extremely grateful if you can support whatever is possible. Every penny counts”.

Speaking through an interpreter, his UZ board colleague Viacheslav Yeromin added that UZ workers “will be the last to leave the territory which has to be evacuated and will be the first to come back… to return the life to the territories which will be freed”.

The launch of ‘Kit for Kyiv’ featured in a headline session at Rail Live on June 19-20. Held at Porterbrook’s Long Marston Rail Innovation Centre, this year’s event drew record numbers of visitors (see story, pages 8-9).

Describing UZ as performing a “crucial role”, Rail Partners Chief Executive Andy Bagnall said: “We were reminded of the ongoing need for the British rail industry to show solidarity with Ukrzaliznytsia. I’d ask anyone in the industry who wants to help to make a donation.”

RAIL Editor Dickon Ross added: “It was a privilege to host Ukrainian Railways at Rail Live and we are delighted to do our bit to help them in their struggle. We’ll say more about this in coming weeks, but in the meantime I’d urge industry colleagues and individuals to do whatever you can to help. You really can make a difference.”