By: C. William Hanson Jr.

With an air war continuing over Ukraine, visitors, including heads of state, travel by train. Passenger flights ceased when the war began.  Distances are huge, and there is no TGV.  The intercity trains, even the nonstop trains from Lviv to Kyiv, do not run much faster than Amtrak.  I draw the line at fourteen hours of travel and then I head for a hotel.  When I travel from Budapest I generally stop for the night in Lviv, a quiet and peaceful city with a population slightly over seven hundred thousand. I stay at the small and tranquil Nota Bene Hotel.  Even there one finds gentle reminders that the country is at war.

The comfort level of train travel in Ukraine varies greatly.  On lines not much traveled, such as that from the Hungarian border area to  Lviv,  one finds trains which most likely remain from  Ukraine’s exploitation in the Soviet Union. 

The long and heavily traveled haul from Lviv to Kyiv provides affordable comfort and by American standards even a degree of luxury. One can if one wishes for part or all of the journey  stretch out on a cot.  The coffee service, at forty nine cents per cup, out classes anything seen or even dreamt of on  American trains since the demise of elegant overnight train travel of the 1950’s. 

En route Sunday afternoon and evening ,I chatted  yesterday with Artem, a twenty one year old student returning to Kyiv, where he studies at the Kyiv National University of Construction and Architecture.

Artem energetically related his experience of the past  couple of years since the war began In the winter of 2022.  At that time his  parents took the family including him westward to the home of his grandparents in Rivne for three months, in order to escape the invasion as it approached their home on the western outskirts. His courses continued online.  He wants to redesign and rebuild the housing damaged or destroyed by the Russians.  His bright eyed, optimistic, and dedicated demeanor inspires hope for the future.  Fortunately no one close to him has died or suffered injury in the war, though an intimate friend fought in the battle which drove the Russians from central Ukraine.  

Artem says that in defense of their country everyone does what he can. The government posts needs on the internet, and in response to such a posting, Artem makes plastic containers to hold ammunition. Artem kindly offered to provide me sometime an architectural tour of Kyiv.  This may well generate some photos for a future issue of our Gazette.

Our next issue will tell and show what we find in Kramatorsk.