The New York Times said that the European railway network - built during more than 150 years of conflicts that defined modern Europe - plays a pivotal role in the integration of the continent's countries in peacetime, and is now back to play its role in wartime.
The newspaper quoted in a report by the director of its office in Brussels, Martina Steves Gridnev, who made a trip on the train linking the Czech capital Prague and the town of Przymysl on the Polish-Ukrainian border, how this line and other European railways turned into a way to transport humanitarian aid and volunteer fighters to the Ukrainian border. Round trip, refugees fleeing from war seeking security back.
She pointed out that the railway network in Europe flourished during the times of past wars, from the second half of the 19th century onwards, carrying soldiers to and from the front lines, delivering supplies to armies on the battlefronts, and growing to meet the needs of the conflicts separating the continent.
In the 1990s and 2000s, when the European Union began to expand eastward and peace took hold, it instead became a major vehicle for European integration, and commuting through it became a rite of passage for young Europeans who enjoyed cheap flights across borders that were once teeming with trenches, as well as by migrant workers from The poorest countries in the European Union to the east in search of jobs in the west of the continent, which opened the labor market wide open for them.
And now - the newspaper adds - the Russian military operation in Ukraine has turned Europe's decorated imperial-era trains and stations into a "new refugee crisis" network in the wake of the war. Its freight trains to deliver humanitarian aid to the Ukrainians.
The German company Deutsche Bahn, in cooperation with other major European railways such as ICE, TGV and Thalys, offers free transcontinental flights to fleeing people. From the war to Germany, Denmark, Belgium, France, Poland, the Czech Republic, Austria, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Switzerland and Italy, the German company also loads food, water and sanitary ware on its freight trains and sends them to Ukraine.
The newspaper reports testimonies and stories of some of those who chose to take the train from the Czech capital, Prague, to join the ranks of the Ukrainian fighters through the Polish Przemysl station (the last station before Lviv in the west of the country).
Among them is Vitaly Slobodyanyuk, 47, a former soldier in the Ukrainian army, who came from Prague to his native town of Vinnytsia (central Ukraine), where his wife, his twin daughters and his 3-year-old grandson live.
Slobodjanyuk says that the last time he carried a weapon was in 2016 in Mariupol (southern Ukraine), which was targeted by Russian-backed separatists, stressing that he is ready to take up arms again.
"Glory to Ukraine"
"I am afraid, everyone is afraid, fear is all around us, we hope this will end soon," he added, clasping his hands clenched by years of fighting and manual labor.
As for his travel companion, Volodymyr Kotswiba, 35, he left his wife and two daughters in the Czech capital, heading to the city of Slavuta (western Ukraine), where his mother and grandmother still live.
"My wife said I don't want to see you leave, while she was at work she took the kids for a walk all day and we made pizza, then I called her and told her I was on the train," he says.
The two men confirmed to the newspaper that they have found it difficult to focus on anything else since the war began.
"It's my choice, not my father's, not my mother's, not my wife's choice," he added, as if he was still trying to convince himself that he had made the right move. Glory to Ukraine.