Poland is receiving praise the world over for embracing refugees fleeing Ukraine as Russian forces continue their assault. Now, Poles are supplementing this "tidal wave of support" for their desperate neighbors by rebuilding a long-abandoned railroad line, placed more than a century ago, to help expedite rescue efforts at the border between the two nations, per the Washington Post. The tracks laid down by the Austro-Hungarian Empire, which run from Lviv in Ukraine through Poland's countryside and on to Vienna, haven't been used in a dozen years and have since fallen into disrepair.
Polish volunteers have been working for days to remedy that situation, toiling from dawn till dusk to push dirt off the tracks, fix broken steel ties, and otherwise prep the line to transport train cars. NPR details the arduous humanitarian task that's underway, with unpaid volunteers sometimes driving hours to get to work sites, where they carry out their repairs in frigid temps using pickaxes and rakes. A spokesperson for Poland's national railway tells the Post that once the line is once more up and running, at least six trains a day will be able to transport refugees from the crowded border to towns further inland.
The volunteers don't seem to mind the sacrifice they're making to help the Ukrainians. "I would go kill [Vladimir] Putin myself, but we'll each do our own part to help Ukraine," one says. Andrzej Bittel, Poland's infrastructure chief, adds, "Poland cannot be indifferent to the tragedy of the Ukrainian people. Railwaymen will help wherever possible." Check out NPR for pictures of the volunteers hard at work. (More Poland stories.)
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