I told Russians where to go, says defiant railways chief

‘We should treat other people’s bodies properly, even if they are the bodies of Russian soldiers’

THE head of Ukrainian Railways told his Russian counterparts to “go f--themselves” after they asked him to reconnect a section of destroyed track.

Alexander Kamyshin told The Daily Telegraph he had been contacted only once by his Russian counterparts during the early stages of the conflict.

He said: “It was the second or third day of the war when all the tracks between Russia and Ukraine had been blown up, when I had a request from Russian Railways offering to reconnect the connection, for security reasons.

“My answer was the same as the answer to the Russian warship, my official answer was, ‘Russian military train ‘Go f--- yourself.’”

Mr Kamyshin was speaking to The Telegraph in the run-up to the anniversary of the Russian invasion on Feb 24, and before the visit of President Biden, who was transported on a Ukrainian Railways train.

During the war, Ukraine’s railways have been a crucial lifeline for the country, having transported 4million people, including a million children, to safety during the conflict.

It has also been crucial to the military efforts with Mr Kamyshin saying that there was a motto in the country, of “first go tanks, and then go trains”.

This was reflected after Ukrainian forces took back Kherson, when railways staff, alongside special forces, were the first people into the city.

Within eight days, Ukrainian Railways was running its first services into Kherson, with several ministers and international journalists on board.

Although the war only began officially last February, Mr Kamyshin indicated Ukrainian Railways and other parts of the state had been preparing for a potential invasion from Russia.

He said: “We were all doing necessary preparatory work for the risk of war [months before Feb 2022].”

During the past 12 months, Ukrainian Railways has seen more than 9,000 of its staff join the armed forces, with 319 of its staff members killed.

The Ukrainian Railways boss also pointed to the cargo transported by his trains as a crucial part of Ukraine’s recovery, and said that he wanted to increase this in the coming months.

Some of the cargo currently being transported includes Russian bodies being sent back to their families.

He said: “After the war I would like to be fine looking in the mirror and into the eyes of my sons, and that means we should treat properly the bodies of other people, even Russian soldiers. Many say we treat dead Russians better than they treat live Russians.”