Kit for Kyiv - can you help?

How many of your employees need helmets as they go about their work? Or bullet-proof high-vis vests?

Working in conjunction with Rail Partners, Ukrainian Railways (UZ) used Rail Live to appeal to British railway companies to help keep its workers safe, by donating to the new ‘Kit for Kyiv’ appeal.

Speaking at Porterbrook’s Long Marston Rail Innovation Centre on June 20, UZ board member Viacheslav Yeromin, and strategy and transformation director Oleg Yakovenko, explained the challenges of keeping the railways going through the Russian invasion. They had each made the journey from Ukraine especially for the event.

The Ukrainians were joined for the discussion by Rail Partners chief executive Andy Bagnall and director of external affairs Hannah Moxon.

“At this type of exhibition we are at today it's very important for us to see the trends and the direction of development,” said Yeromin, translated by Yakovenko. “We’re comparing innovaiton and the costs of innovation. We're not in the situation where we can look too far ahead to the long term, but interested in innovations which can bring quick results in the situation and allow us to protect our infrastructure.” Yakovenko said they wrre inetrested in Great British Railways and will watch its development with an eye to ideas they can take and apl,y in UZ.

The delegates were asked what important lessons they had learned that could be used elsewhere.  Yeromin replied that they had learned in particular a lot about how to interact with the military and "how to work with our employees who are left behind the enemy lines... and what to do when the front line is approaching or moving away and territories are becoming free. That’s the experience we’ve had and we are sharing this information in certain places."

He then went on to tell a sobering story of their lack of preparation for war. "Several months before the start of war we were asking ourselves how we are going to work if it starts and discovered that there is a special envelope and it was all written in that envelope. 'Why don’t you show us what’s inside?' we asked." That was denied until the war started. "When it started and we opened it, we found the documents dated from the 1960s and 1970s" and hoplessly out of date. "At that time no one was expecting this scale of war in the 21st century. Unfortunately our main conclusion is when you stop preparing for war that's when the war comes.”

In addition to their hour-long presentation and discussion, the Ukrainian delegates also took a tour of the Rail Live site. Aside from their need for body armour, UZ has a particular demand for rail and for track fixings. Ukraine used to have a factory making its own rails too, but no more.

Yeromin and Yakovenko’s visit to Rail Live was organised by Rail Partners, which has previously raised more than £100,000 through the UK rail industry to fund food parcels for Ukrainian Railways workers and their families.

“Rail Partners will continue to support our colleagues in UZ however we can”, said Andy Bagnall.

“If you work in rail, or the supply chain, or the accessibility space, or if you are just interested and think you can help, we would urge you to get in touch.”

For more details on ‘Kit for Kyiv’, see https://www.railpartners.co.uk/latest/events?view=article&id=176&catid=17

A full report on Rail Live, including the Ukraine session, will follow in RAIL 1013.