#travel to ukraine

[oscar-out-of-a-suitcase]

Kamianets-Podilskyi, Ukraine

[kas-e]

Two Frames in the Balkans

[ohsalome]

[pellinni-photo]

coniferous forest on the shore reflecting in the water. alpine landscape with lake of synevyr national park in morning light. popular travel destination of ukrainian carpathians in summer

[dontforgetukraine]

Illia Ponomarenko highlights the National Chornobyl Museum in Kyiv in the historic Podil neighborhood. There are over 22,000 showpieces related to the 1986 disaster. The space is bursting with artifacts and pieces of equipment from the 1980s, including short films, documents, and photos.

[trumpnewsplanetbroadcastrecords]

PREDATOR TIME TRAVELING MILITARY SOCIETIES THAT EAT AND OR ENSLAVE AND OR PURGE HUMANOID LIFE IN ORDER TO COLONIZE PLANETS MANIPULATE GROUPS OF ALL TYPES TOWARDS THOSE AIMS

[bakinochkame]

💙💛🌏🧭

[nonotnow-photography]

Carpathian Mountains

Summer 2023

©️nonotnow photography.

[wedgeantill]

Vorokhta Viaduct

[ozkaterji]

September 14th.

Gazprom Gas Facility, Sudzha, Ukrainian-occupied Kursk region, Russia.

[oscar-out-of-a-suitcase]

Ukraine

[laowinjey]

[hnynsll]

City vibe

[astrolegal]

In imperialist wars of aggression, neutrality is always pro-aggressor.

It's okay to be anti-war, but don't let it get to the point where you oppose an independent nation defending its sovereignty.

[pellinni-photo]

great view of ukraine mountain landscape. forested slopes in morning light. deciduous trees in fall foliage. warm autumn forenoon scenery. golden october scenery

[dontforgetukraine]

Train attendant Tetiana Kohut checks the tickets of passengers before departure to Lviv at a railway station in Kyiv, Ukraine on June 12, 2024. (Danylo Pavlov / The Kyiv Independent)

War changes everything

Tetiana Kohut, a 37-year-old train attendant, often sees strangers find common ground while traveling. It’s not surprising, she notes: in the intimate space of a train compartment during long journeys, shared everyday rituals – like sleeping or sipping tea – create a cozy atmosphere, naturally fostering connections among passengers. Trains have also evolved into unexpected hubs for celebrity encounters and important connections, often paving the way to shared projects and other new opportunities. Since the start of Russia’s full-scale war, Ukrainian trains have borne witness to more tears of sorrow, sadness, and grief than ever before. Just a day after Russian troops began heavily bombarding Ukrainian cities in late February 2022, Kohut was working on her regular route from Lviv, her hometown, to Novooleksiivka in Kherson Oblast. But her train never reached the destination. The village, located on the east bank of the Dnipro River in Kherson Oblast, was swiftly occupied by the Russians. "We reached Zaporizhzhia and were told that we could not go further," Kohut says. "We also were ordered to allow everyone on the train, not only those with tickets. We became an evacuation train." A train attendant of nearly 20 years, Kohut heard the sounds of explosions for the first time that day in Zaporizhzhia. She also saw hundreds of people at the station. Many of them were crying, and others looked lost and heartbroken, leaving suitcases on the platform as they boarded the lifesaving train to escape the war. The first-class sleeping car she worked in was designed to accommodate 20 people but ended up carrying nearly 200, Kohut says. "A woman from Zaporizhzhia helped me count the passengers and wrote a heartwarming letter to thank us." The start of the all-out war changed everything for Kohut and many other train attendants across Ukraine. In the first few months of the invasion, they worked without breaks, despite their exhaustion, to ensure everyone who wanted to escape the war could board their trains. The war also heightened the hazards of their work, as Russian attacks occasionally target train stations. Over 600 Ukrzaliznytsia employees have been killed since Feb. 24, 2022. Kohut says she lost colleagues in the Aug. 24, 2022 Russian attack on Chaplyne, Dnipropetrovsk Oblast, when a passenger train and a residential area were hit, killing a total of 25 people. One of her close friends, a fellow train attendant, was seriously injured in the attack. Once filled with laughter and excitement for upcoming travels, the train cars are now often filled with crying, silence, or the heavy sighs of people sharing the pain brought by Russia’s war. "We have to be doctors… We have to be psychologists for our passengers now," says Kohut.

Source: From strangers to friends: How Ukrainians meet and bond during wartime train travel