Ticket To Safety: Ukraine's Evacuation Trains Continue Perilous Mission Amid Russian Invasion

Every day at 4:30 p.m., a free train leaves Pokrovsk offering evacuation to Dnipro, Kyiv, and Lviv. Pokrovsk is 48 kilometers from the front line, where Ukrainian troops are defending the eastern Donbas region from invading Russian forces.

Civilians gather at the train station in Pokrovsk to be evacuated on June 25.

The United Nations says at least 12 million people have fled their homes since Russia's attack began in February. 

The train will carry them west, to safer areas of Ukraine. But Russian missiles have hit targets across the country, and the UN says that as of June 21 more than 5.2 million people had left Ukraine to seek greater security in other countries. 

The European Union has granted Ukrainian citizens the automatic right to stay and work throughout its 27 members for up to three years. 

With Ukrainian men aged 18 to 60 barred from leaving the country in case they are called to fight, the majority of refugees and internally displaced persons are women, children, and elderly people.

This is Lyudmila and Volodymyr, among the latest additions to the millions of Ukrainians forced to flee their homes. 
 

Cradling a child, a woman checks her phone as the train heads west.

RFE/RL reporters in the region have spoken to many people who, despite, the risks, are reluctant to abandon their homes. Some leave the decision until the last minute, while some leave it too late.

An elderly passenger shows signs of fatigue.

On June 25, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy  said: "At this stage of the war it's spiritually difficult, emotionally difficult.... We don't have a sense of how long it will last, how many more blows, losses, and efforts will be needed."