On August 14, the last commuter train stopped running from Druzhkivka in the Donetsk region. For local residents, this means that getting to jobs in Kramatorsk and Sloviansk will become more difficult and more expensive.
Bus routes are still operating, and people continue to use them. Still, the cancellation of the local trains has become a major break in everyday life for many thousands of residents in the region.
These are people living in dormitory settlements between Druzhkivka, Kramatorsk, and Sloviansk. For decades, those communities were tied together by the railway, around which their normal daily routine was built.
Every day from 6 a.m., three workers’ trains ran from Kostiantynivka to Sloviansk. Thousands of passengers used them to reach factories and the markets of Kramatorsk, and in summer to travel for leisure to the lakes of the Sloviansk resort area.
In the second half of the day, those same trains brought people back home. Their cancellation has therefore become not only a transport problem, but also a symbol of the destruction of a familiar way of life.
For civilians, the end of the train service is another sign that rear-area life is coming to an end and that their home settlements are sliding ever deeper into war.
Even so, Druzhkivka continues to function. The city remains inhabited and active, although it recently endured a drone attack on a shopping center, the city market, and the nearby military enlistment office.