photo: RAILTARGET/Eight hundred of our employees are now serving in the Armed Forces of Ukraine, says Irina Stupachenko, KLW
Amid Russia's war of aggression in Ukraine, representation of the latter in the world has become a crucial factor on the way to victory. At the most prominent event of the railway sector in 2022, the InnoTrans trade fair, Ukraine's representation was stronger than ever before. RAILTARGET managed to talk to a representative of KLW Wheelco SA, whose mills are located in Dnipro, Ukraine. Irina Stupachenko told us about the agendas with which the company arrived at the fair, the unique design of their wheelsets in support of Ukraine, and KLW's products.
How do you like this event?
It's a nice trade fair, as usual. InnoTrans is the biggest trade fair for railways and railroad systems, and it's the place where such companies should be presented.
Can you introduce your company, please?
We are KLW, and the origin of our products is in Ukraine. Our wheels are located in Ukraine, we produce wheels, axles and wheelsets for freight and passenger trains. Today we are not only showing our products and capacities or what we can produce for our customers or prospective customers, but we also are talking about the situation in Ukraine because the war has been going on for more than half a year and it's important for us. The company has ten thousand employees, and eight hundred of them are now serving in the Armed Forces of Ukraine. We are helping and supporting them, our medicians, hospitals and refugees. So we would also like to pay attention to this terrorism, and we hope for the further win of Ukraine.
That's really nice. And is there any product you came here with?
We came with our freight wheelset for the European market especially. It is like our usual product. We propose a wide range of wheelsets for the European market, and also for American and other export markets. It's also unusual because we have a special design of the set and a special painting of our wheelsets, not like usual ones, but something special for InnoTrans this year.