8:05 a.m.: Train 712 and the Platform of Tears
With a bouquet of roses in his hand, soldier Yuri gets on the train to hug his wife. She comes from Kiev to visit him in eastern Ukraine, near the front where he is fighting. He is 56 years old, his wife Vira is 49. They walk like two lovebirds on platform 4 of Kramatorsk train station, the terminus. Vira took intercity train No. 712 at 6:42 a.m., a daily connection between the Ukrainian capital and this city in Donbass, located 25 km from one of the war’s most active fronts.
Seven hours later, the couple reunites full of emotions. The last time was this summer. “I have tears in my eyes (…) Today is Vira’s birthday. So it’s a gift, everything is perfect,” says the tall man in a cap and camouflage suit, mobilized in territorial defense. Like many couples separated by the war who reunite there for a short time, they rented an apartment in Kramatorsk.
Industrial city and important railway junction Kramatorsk – with 150,000 inhabitants before the war – is a regular target of Russian bombing raids. On April 8, 2022, a rocket struck the train station crowded with civilians waiting to be evacuated, leaving 61 dead and more than 160 injured. Track 4, where train 712 is parked, is protected on both sides by freight cars loaded with earth.