Voice of Ukraine

VOU: This piece has been translated

Reposted by Laryssa W-n: I will want to remember this and leave this photo here.
This is not 1941, this is March 2022, Kharkiv. Color photo made in black and white.
This photo can be called “February, March 2022, stations of Ukraine.”
In such a train after a few days spent at the Kiev station, my colleague went with his daughter and little granddaughter.
So everything was from her words, as in this text.

… Evacuation trains from Kyiv left clogged, tense and quiet.
Lost, scared children, nervous animals, tired and exhausted people. Someone will be lucky to sit in a place, the rest just fall to the floor in the aisles and tambourine. Things are at least, but they take up all the space left.
The train departs the station and practically immediately the lights go out in the cabin. On the side of the door of the whisper pass directions: no phones, bright light, internet on or, for God’s sake, geolocation. Everyone is obediently turning off their screens. Dark. Quiet. The train neatly steals between the same dark fields and villages. Somewhere it freezes, somewhere it makes a sharp jump.
Children are starting to get crazy – cartoons, to the toilet, candy, to be like. Go nowhere, you have to get to the toilet unless it’s air. But everyone understands everything, press their feet, try to skip. Parents are somehow calming down the babies, but only one end of the wagon dies – the other wakes up.
It’s been an hour buddy. They should already arrive to Vinnytsia on a normal schedule. They say that we will be in Vinnytsia no sooner than in two hours, and maybe there will be no stops. Someone is trying to get angry, but they are quick to be flabbergasted. The kids are falling asleep. It’s getting hot and not enough air. Bored. Scary. You want to drink, but remember that you don’t run to the toilet.
The lights of Vinnytsia appear ahead. The train is rolling through for sure. The next potential stop is Khmelnytskyi. When the arrival is unknown.
Crawl up the clock. The kids wake up and it all starts in circles. The lights are on again. The train is slowing down, the lights are on in the cabin. Everyone is frowning, taking out their phones, climbing to check the scenery.
Arriving at the train station. In the salon announcement that parking is 5 minutes. Some people start chaotic grabbing things, children, cats and breaking their way out. Jumping out on the platform, but it didn’t get particularly freer.
Suddenly into the tambourine of the run, a huge card bazaar bag is thrown, followed by two more, and then another one is dragged by two women. People are starting to sulk a little, saying, where else, here and nowhere to turn, and you are still with the mixture. Then someone answers that maybe there is animal that you are starting it here.
Women don’t pay attention. Expensive, visibly already sharpened movements, quickly open bags and begin to throw in the hands of those who are closer, some packages.

• Quick, pass on, 3 minutes left!
  People are obediently passing it on. One sum is empty, two more behind it. People in the salon are waking up and trying to figure out what they are doing here.
  One of the women yells loudly into the salon:
• Are the children small?
  – Is!
• How many ?
• Around 20.
  Opens last bag, shakes bags out of it.
• Tell it to your moms!
  And around the salon like a wave: “tell moms, tell moms… “.
  The train is rolling in. One of the women is quick to fill the empty bags, the other throws the rest of the bags right on the floor, and both jump onto the platform.
• Ludo, water!
  A block of water is thrown into the tambur out of range, followed by another one. The train has come down.
  People, as they have measured, begin to open packages that have been put in their hands. In each ball: three oatmeal livers, cheese sandwich, oil and sausage sandwich, an apple, two chocolate candies, a few crabs. In the bags that were handed over to moms are a pair of diapers and three packs of baby food.
  The lights go out again. It’s quiet in the salon, but sharudât У wraps from candy, someone asks to pass water. They say that next is Ternopil, but there may be no stops.
  The dark train sneaks between the dark fields and villages.
  Anastasia Haridzhuk.