Ukraine: Cherson is liberated – but many just want to leave

Outside, the passenger train stands between the two rows of rust-covered boxcars. They are supposed to offer protection when the Russian artillery fires indiscriminately into Cherson from the other bank of the river. Inside, in the small waiting room, heavily armed police officers are sitting on a bench in front of the sandbag-reinforced windows and scrutinizing the people sitting on chairs in front of them – as straight as a die, as if they were being interrogated. But it’s not an interrogation. The police officers register refugees who want to get to safety.

Cherson in March, on a sunny day that foreshadows the coming of spring. The city in southern Ukraine is quiet, the streets are almost deserted. Between March and November Cherson was occupied by the Russians. On November 11, they retreated to the opposite side of the Dnipro after Ukrainian artillery destroyed their supply lines.

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Now, it seems, the Russians want revenge for the shame and jubilation at the liberation by civilian population terrorize. Almost every day they shell the city and the region with multiple rocket launchers and other artillery, people die or are injured almost every day. Many cannot stand the constant shelling. The city is bleeding.

The Kherson railway station is a picturesque, pastel-colored building, built in 1907 and shot to pieces during the crewextensively renovated after the liberation. From here trains once went all over Ukraine, further south to Crimea, north to Kharkiv, west to Lviv and the capital. After the Russian occupation of Crimea in 2014 and the raid last year, only the routes to Kiev and Lviv remained.

Trains are running again, but people don’t want to stay

At 1:27 p.m., the passenger train from Lviv in western Ukraine arrives, right on the dot. The passengers get out, dragging their suitcases behind them, a soldier greets his girlfriend with a bouquet of flowers. Many of those who arrive just want to stay for a short time, get belongings or documents from their apartments, or just check whether their houses are still intact.

Dull gunfire rumbles, on the other bank of the Dnipro black clouds of smoke rise, obviously the Ukrainian artillery has Russian targets met. The Ukrainians are trying to keep pushing the Russians back, out of shot.

Halyna Kolesnykova leaves the rumble of war do not disturb, she smokes a cigarette with a colleague on the platform. The train station is something like a second home for her, she has been working here in information for four decades. Kolesnykova did not work during the leaden months of the occupation. She is almost always at home, just walks her dog.

Only a fifth of the former population lives in Cherson

On November 17th she is back at the station for the first time. “You can’t imagine what it was like here, there was rubbish everywhere, everything was broken, there were no more curtains,” she says. But she was very happy. “We cleaned everything up and now our station is beautiful again.”

Not only the curtains are now hanging over the windows again. There are now charging stations for mobile phones and coal stoves in the waiting halls. This was important in the first few months after liberation, when Cherson was without electricity, heating and flowing water was. It is the time when traffic backs up in front of the checkpoints out of the city and hundreds of people crowd into the train station every day. Everyone wants to get away from the Russian revenge fire.

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Back then, Kolesnykova and her colleagues provided the refugees with coffee and tea, and hot drinks are always available today. “It’s maybe a fifth of the previous population in Cherson,” the 60-year-old estimates. she wants to stay After all, the city now has electricity and water supply. “The most important thing is that we are at home and free,” she says. When bad thoughts come to her, she remembers at the turn of the year when they had a Christmas tree in the train station and gifts were distributed to the children. “That was really nice.”

Despite liberation: There are no jobs, schools are closed

In addition to normal passengers, there are also those who can no longer stand it in the waiting room. Today is about 40 refugees. Vitali Galka, Oksana Chabanova and their children Anastasiia and Vlada have just been registered and photographed by the police. They wait on the wooden benches for their train to depart. “It’s too dangerous here due to the constant bombing,” says Vitali Galka. He is 43 and used to work as a driver. His partner is 41, she was a saleswoman. “But the business has been destroyed.”

After the liberation, says Galka, they had hope, especially when the electricity came back. “But now all of our friends have left, there are no jobs, the children can’t go to school or kindergarten, they can’t even play outside.” That’s why today, like the other refugees, they almost drive 700 kilometers to the northwest inland, to Khmelnytskyi. You are lucky, you can stay with relatives there. The ride is free for them.

In Chmelnyzkyi they first want to see that Anastasiia can go to school again. “I’m looking forward to it,” says the 12-year-old. Little Vlada should finally start school. “If everything is calm, we will definitely come back,” says her father.

People want to go inland – away from the bombs

Three women take care of the refugees, they are actually teachers. Grocery packages for the journey are stacked behind a desk. “We write down here what people need when they arrive in Khmelnytskyi, i.e. medicine, money, accommodation or special care. Then our people will know what to do,” says one of the helpers, who declined to give her name. At least the refugees and the other passengers can wait in the hall today.

It’s the first time in two weeks that the Train station air-raid shelter remains unused, a basement smelling of fresh paint that fits up to 80 people, equipped with wifi and a bar serving tea and coffee. Today it is comparatively quiet in Cherson.

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Shortly after 2 p.m., the refugees and other passengers flock to the train. The wagons are painted with colorful motifs. It’s a special train “Train to Victory”, and the wagons represent Ukrainian territories still under Russian occupation. Ukrainian Railways offers symbolic tickets for these areas, for example to Donetsk, Mariupol or Luhansk. The tickets are said to be selling very well.

It is about 950 kilometers to the Lviv terminus, a journey of about 20 hours. The compartments in the wagons are equipped with bunks. Plastic foil is stuck to the windows. It is a protection in case bombs detonate outside while driving. Then the glass could burst and the splinters could become dangerous projectiles. Vitali Galka smokes one last cigarette on the platform. At 2:27 p.m., the train squeaks into motion. Punctual to the minute.

Halyna Kolesnykova says goodbye to her colleagues. She’s off work. Today no more trains will depart from Kherson.

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