Ukraine’s wartime rail chief has to be faster than the Russians tracking him

There is a last minute change of plans. After all, it will not leave the main station. The bodyguards move fast and we follow, running through the quiet streets behind the convoy and into the suburbs.

The Russians would like to kill him.

Oleksandr Kamyshin is sure of this. So the 37-year-old president of the Ukrainian railway network constantly changes his travel plans. Never stay in one place too long. Never have a routine that the Russians can discover.

“We have to be faster than those people trying to track us down,” he tells me.

The railway is the largest employer in the country with 231,000 employees in 233,000 square miles (603,470 square kilometers) of territory: Ukraine is the second largest country in Europe.

So far, Kamyshin estimates that his staff have helped move 2.5 million people to safety. But the vast operation has come at a cost. Schedules must be constantly updated due to Russian attacks. Since Vladimir Putin’s invasion began, 33 railway employees have been killed.

“They cross our runway every day. They come to the stations. Our people risk their lives. They are bombed. They keep saving people,” says Kamyshin.

When we first meet, he is sitting at a long table with his closest advisers, studying a map of the national rail network. The police guard the entrance to the room.

There are constant phone calls. “Thank you for your support. But I also have a request,” he tells her to a caller. “Help us build trade between Ukraine and Poland.” He hangs up and smiles. “That was the Polish infrastructure minister,” he says.

Kamyshin wants to set up a joint venture with Poland to send Ukrainian exports west.

Former accountant and businessman, Mr. Kamyshin is now one of the most important men in the country. In just a few weeks he has gone from reforming the rail sector to director of wartime operations.

“All the people in Ukraine were businessmen, farmers and other professions before the war started. Now all the people in Ukraine are at war. All of us have started to make war,” he says.

His own life is a blur of train travel, stopping in one place to talk to local staff, another to meet with government officials, and in constant contact with senior leadership in kyiv.

He has not seen his wife and two young children since the war began nearly three weeks ago.

The railways not only keep refugees on the move, but also deliver tons of aid to the country’s conflict zones, transport troops to frontline cities, and continue to export whatever Ukraine can produce in these wartime conditions. A Russian blockade has closed key ports in the south.

Mr. Kamyshin introduces himself as a man who is planning a long campaign. “Instead of seaports, we’re going west,” he explains. “We have launched a program to relocate production from east to west. So we can move people, ideas, plans, maybe machinery to launch new production in the west.”

It is an ambitious project and could be essential for the economic survival of the country. However, Kamyshin believes that the West needs to do more than supply weapons and humanitarian aid.

He wants the NATO military alliance to impose a no-fly zone. It’s a mantra repeated by government officials almost every time, however unlikely the possibility of it happening.

“This war will be won by Ukraine anyway. Now all that has to happen is for the West to shut down the sky.”

The last time I saw Mr. Kamyshin was around midnight at a suburban train depot. He walks along the side of the tracks in the dark until the spotlight from the approaching train briefly illuminates the small group of him.

The train stops and a stewardess welcomes you on board. I can’t say where her train is headed, but next night will be full of calls and arguments. There will be a few hours of sleep, perhaps, and a constant check on where the Russians have recently struck.

“We will continue to repair the tracks once the shooting stops,” he says before leaving. “We will keep the trains running as long as we can. There is no other option for us.”