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.”..
Source: ctvnews.ca
Tuesday, May 5, 2026
