Donets Railway

The railway was created in 1953 by merging North-Donets Railway (Artemivsk) and South-Doents Railway (Yasynuvata).

The railway serves Ukraine's largest industrial heartland of Donbas-Donetsk and Lugansk, as well as partially the regions of Zaporizhia, Kharkiv and Dnipropetrovsk oblasts, thus combining in a single transport corridor the cities of Donbas and Dnipro, the central regions of Ukraine, and is connected to the Russian regions of Volga and the Caucasus. The railway has two border transfer stations on the Russia-Ukraine border over which it does not have a control due to war conditions. Those are Krasna Mohyla (Chervonopartyzansk), Kvashyne, Ilovaisk, and Lantrativka, Troitske Raion.

In the south, Donetsk Railways has access to the Azov sea through the commercial port of Mariupol, as well as access to the largest industrial center of Ukraine — Mariupol. Donetsk Railway's length is 13 percent of Ukrainian railway network total length. At the same time, its part, accounts for 47 percent of loading and 36 percent of discharge from all Ukrainian railways. The railway is located on the area of 57,000 km2.

Donetsk Railway is the main mode of transport, serving passengers and a large amount of different industrial facilities: coal mines, metallurgical, coke-chemical and pipe mills, machine-building and machine-building plants, chemical, light, food and other industries.

In December 2014 the order of Ukraine government stated the territory of Donetsk Railway and its affiliated companies, located in the state-controlled Ukrainian territory, were transferred to the temporary administration of Southern and Cisdnieper Railways.[2]

The Donetsk Railway administrative division consists of three railway transportation directorates all located in Lyman, namely:

• Krasno-Lyman (Lyman)
• Luhansk (Lyman)
• Donetsk (Lyman)

Previously, two other directorates also existed:

• Ilovaisk (Ilovaisk)
• Zhdanov (Mariupol)
• Yasynuvata (Yasynuvata)
• Debaltseve (Debaltseve)

The main railway hubs of Donetsk railway: Yasynuvata, Donetsk, Mariupol, Debaltseve, Ilovaysk, Luhansk, Popasna, Kondrashevska-Nova, Pokrovsk, Kramatorsk, Sloviansk, Kostiantynivka, Mykytivka, Lyman, Chervona Mohyla.[2][3]

Due to the Russian occupation of Ukraine, authority over certain railways and stations was granted to Cisdnieper and Southern Railways.[4]

Currently, southern branches are under the Cisdnieper Railways administration, while the northern branches are still being operated by the Krasny Lyman Directorate. In 2016, there was renewed operations on a separate branch in Luhansk, which became separated due to the conflict.[5]

On 28 May 2016, railway servicemen who were working for the Donetsk People's Republic in Yasynuvata protested against the failure of the government of Ukraine to pay their salaries.[6][7] On 28 July, it was revealed that the protests were legitimate and the government owed the workers money for services rendered. This involved a process of restructuring and an issue that the Ukrainian government is trying to resolve.[8] The spokesperson confirmed that all personnel still work at the Donetsk Railway of Ukrzaliznytsia (UZ) and the government of Ukraine does not acknowledge their employment otherwise.[8]

• Official website
• Donetsk Railway
• Lugansk Railway
• "Расписание пассажирских поездов по станциям". Archived from the original on 2012-12-02.
• "Музей истории и развития Донецкой железной дороги". Archived from the original on 2012-11-26.
• "Расписание пригородных электропоездов по станциям". Archived from the original on 2012-12-02.
• "Железнодорожный портал Донецкой железной дороги". Archived from the original on 2012-12-02.
• "Детский лагерь "Буревестник" Донецкой железной дороги". Archived from the original on 2012-12-02.
• "Донецкая железная дорога". Archived from the original on 2012-12-02.
• "Донецкая область. Досье". Archived from the original on 2012-12-02.