No luxuries, even carriages were different – Communities and Territories Development Minister about train taken by government officials on 24 February 2022

On the morning of 24 February 2022, when the news about Russia's full-scale invasion emerged, some of the members of the Cabinet of Ministers, who had a quorum, were taken to the west of Ukraine by a regular train.

Source: Ukrainska Pravda podcast "Zaluzhnyi's office, Zelenskyy's meetings, evacuation of the Cabinet of Ministers. 24.02: Reconstruction"

Details: Infrastructure Minister Oleksandr Kubrakov said that in the morning of 22 February, they started looking for a train to take away the ministers, their families, and important classified documents. Oleksii Chernyshov, Minister of Communities and Territories Development, said that it was "an absolutely ordinary train".

Quote from Kubrakov: "All around is war and chaos. I called almost the entire management of Ukrainian Railways while we were assembling those two trains from what was available. There were no luxuries, but people were happy to have at least that.

Although those trains had already arrived, they were still not departing. The trains were supposed to leave at 12:00, but they were standing still, and they didn't leave at 13:00 either. Around 14:00, the first one left. And [Oleksii] Chernyshov repeatedly called me: "Well, where is that train? When is it coming? Well, why isn't it coming?"

Quote from Chernyshov: "It was made up of some reserves or available capacities. There were no markings on it; even the carriages were different in some places. It wasn't even filled to its full capacity. We were on the road longer than I expected. Because the train was not regular and that day was not without failures. That's why we travelled for 20 hours."

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