Nadia Pryshlyak15:59, 22.03.26

Ilona Vovk was just beginning her journey as a guide.

During the Russian attack on the night of March 22, 19-year-old conductor Ilona Vovk was killed. Oleksandr Pertsovsky, Chairman of the Board of Ukrzaliznytsia, wrote about this on Facebook .

“Ilona Vovk is an extremely painful loss that the railway family suffered this night. The 19-year-old girl was just starting her journey as a conductor. She really dreamed of becoming a railway worker, was proud that she had completed an internship and was starting her first full-fledged trips. She was very actively involved in our youth railway community – our Personnel team noticed her activity, and Ilona was selected together with her colleagues to undergo an internship in Germany,” he said and added that after the foreign internship, the girl wanted to work in Ukraine at Ukrzaliznytsia.

According to Pertsovsky, on the night of March 22, Ukrzaliznytsia is being dismantled “bit by bit.” He explained that during enemy strikes on rolling stock, passengers are evacuated. And today’s early evacuation on the Prydniprovska Railway saved both the crew and passengers when a UAV hit the locomotive. 

“On the Odessa Railway, fatal circumstances led to the fact that an oncoming train fatally injured Ilona, ​​who was conducting an evacuation. The investigation is ongoing into how and why the existing safety algorithms did not prevent this danger, how one circumstance superimposed on another. Every detail is very important in order to continue working in the extraordinary conditions in which our teams are traveling today,” Pertsovsky emphasized. Read also:

According to him, Ilona acted bravely and at the time of the tragedy was heading to help the passengers. 

“They say that railway safety rules are written in blood. Unfortunately, every day we live the writing of railway operating rules during wartime, which we have to change and adapt all the time. The blood with which they are written is not abstract – it is names, smiles, dreams, plans that we lose forever. A very painful price for continuing to move. But we have no right to stop, despite constant enemy raids on the railway,” wrote the chairman of the board of Ukrzaliznytsia.

(C)UNIAN 2026