Permission ends in the dark, on a platform at kyiv station. It is 6:30 a.m. Clusters of men in military uniform are engulfed in the cars of the Intercity in the direction of Kramatorsk, an industrial center that has become the main Ukrainian rear base on the Donbass front. Few relatives accompany the soldiers so early in the morning. A boy furtively wipes away a tear as he watches his father climb the stairs, but the emotion is restrained on the faces of those accompanying him. All, civilians and soldiers, still seem to be numb from sleep.
Modern and comfortable, this South Korean-made train has been shuttling between kyiv and the Donbass since 2012. The government had then acquired it at great expense to transport the supporters of Euro 2012. Formerly, its terminus was Donetsk, a city occupied since 2014 by the Russian army then annexed in 2022 following the large-scale invasion .
This August 24, the passengers of the full train are half civilians, half soldiers. Some men wear prostheses. Another trace of the war that we now frequently see in the back. But despite the fact that the train is hurtling at 120 km/h towards hell, the atmosphere is as peaceful and sleepy as in a morning Paris-Bordeaux.
“My first leave in a year and a half”
Petro, a short, 50-year-old man, blond with blue eyes, stands alone, looking at the landscape through the window of the door. Like the other soldiers, he removed his name and that of his unit on his chest and shoulders. Instructions from the General Staff for soldiers circulating across the country. “I am returning from my first leave in a year and a half of war”says Petro, a little suspicious at first. “Normally, we are entitled to thirty days a year. I had to settle for ten days at home with my wife.he said in a choppy voice searching for words.
An alcoholic perfume around him betrays a nocturnal binge. “You can’t really leave the front – what will happen then? There are not enough men. No one wants to fight on the side of Bakhmout, except the crazy people like mecontinues Petro, who frequently points to his temple with his index finger. I left as a volunteer. I had no choice. If we don’t stop these [Russes], they will come back to kyiv and continue what they did in Boutcha. My wife thinks I’m crazy! People in kyiv do not realize. For them, war is something on TV. They don’t want to talk about it or listen to us. They want reassuring news, not listening to horror stories. » He is fed up. “Me, I had forgotten that today is the party [nationale] of independence. »
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