At least 14 people have been killed after a Russian jet-powered drone struck a crowded platform at the main railway station in the central Ukrainian city of Dnipro, local officials said, according to the BBC, as reported by Rks News.
Oleksandr Hanzha, head of the Dnipropetrovsk regional administration, said at least 14 other people were injured in the attack, including an 11-year-old boy.
Ukraine’s state railway operator, Ukrzaliznytsia, reported that a passenger train bound for the southern city of Zaporizhzhia was at one of the platforms in Dnipro when the drone struck.
The Russian military has made no public comment. Russian forces have repeatedly targeted Ukraine’s extensive railway network, although Moscow denies deliberately targeting civilians.
According to railway operator chief Oleksandr Pertsovsky, a high threat level had been declared in Dnipro before Thursday’s attack.
“Unfortunately, there were still a large number of people on the platform” when the drone struck, he said.
Dnipro Mayor Borys Filatov described the incident as a tragedy, adding that the drone had hit a civilian electric train.
Footage released by Ukrainian emergency services showed a large crater in the platform, with bodies visible in the footage but blurred, alongside a train damaged by the blast, its windows shattered.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said that “the Russians used a drone to attack a platform where a commuter train and a passenger train were located.”
He called for further sanctions against Russia from the United States, Europe and the G7, and reiterated his criticism of a controversial agreement reached earlier this month between Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin. The agreement eased certain sanctions on Moscow, allowing the United States to import Russian diesel.
Elsewhere in Ukraine, two 15-year-old girls were killed in a Russian missile attack on the center of the northern city of Chernihiv, regional head Vyacheslav Chaus said. At least 25 other people, including four children, were injured.
Friday was declared a day of mourning in Chernihiv and Dnipro.
In the city of Kremenchuk, in the central Poltava region, three people were killed and 28 others injured in a Russian drone attack that struck residential buildings and a school, regional head Vitaliy Diakivnych reported.
