Ukraine’s national railway company has a catchy slogan, delivered with considerable pride: “Trains on time.”
It’s a remarkable achievement considering the airborne terror unleashed on this country by Russia. Through it all, with stations bombed, tracks destroyed, and employees killed, the trains never stopped.
They’ve carried millions of refugees to safety, packing trains around the clock, and every time a Ukrainian city or town is liberated, the familiar blue and yellow cars soon arrive to pick up passengers.
Not for nothing do people call the country’s rail workers “Ukraine’s second army.”
Joe Biden knows and loves trains. For years when he was a U.S. senator, he took the train every night from Washington, D.C., to Delaware to be with his family. And suddenly, there he was again, back on board, only this time as U.S. President Biden, rolling into war-ravaged Ukraine.
As you might expect, his train had casually been dubbed “Rail Force One.”
The head of Ukrainian Railways, Alexander Kamyshin, issued a series of proud tweets as soon as Biden was safely back in Poland. Among them was a stylized image of a modern locomotive, bearing shiny blue and yellow stripes, with an American flag blowing in the wind.
“Out of 24 hours, president Biden spent 20 on the train (both directions) and only 4 in Kyiv. That’s why it was important for us to care about him in a proper way. And we did,” Kamyshin tweeted Tuesday.
He was very coy about how it all came together.
“I will not tell you much more about this mission. Just believe me, it was quite a complicated project for us.”
Secrecy was paramount. After covertly flying to Poland, Biden was driven to Przemyśl Główny station on the border for the long and plodding journey to Kyiv. A White House pool reporter filled in the details.
According to the pooler, the train had approximately eight cars and most were occupied by a “heavy security presence.” One assumes that means a lot of well-armed American soldiers or Secret Service agents.
Nobody seemed to notice what was going on.
“A small group of passengers awaiting a separate train on the opposite side of the tracks were huddled in conversation and occasionally glanced over,” according to the pooler.
The train left Poland at exactly 9:37 p.m. and crossed into Ukraine at roughly 10 p.m. on Sunday There were no sightings of the president during the night.
The pooler had a keen sense of observation as the train approached Kyiv: “The sun had risen and views from the window largely consisted of graffitied walls, barren winter trees and a colourful assortment of brick homes.”
Astutely reporting Biden’s first words as he stepped off the train at 8 a.m., right on time: “It’s good to be back in Kyiv.”
Four or five hours later, after meetings and walkabouts with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Biden was back in his private coach for the 10-hour return trip.
“On his favourite mode of transport,” as noted by the pooler.
When it was over and the American leader was delivered safely over the Polish border, the head of Ukrainian Railways issued an apology. Not for anything that might have upset the president. He apologized to his regular passengers for running behind schedule.
“We had to delay some of our trains to give way to #RailForceOne,” Kamyshin sadly explained via Twitter. “It was painful for me and my team, but I had to do that.”
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