At least 14 people were killed and 14 others injured in a Russian drone strike on a railway station in the eastern Ukrainian city of Dnipro on Thursday, local authorities confirmed. The attack marked the deadliest single incident involving civilian casualties in recent weeks.
Oleksandr Hanzha, the governor of Dnipropetrovsk region, reported on Telegram that the strike occurred while a commuter train and a passenger train were stationed at the platform. Initial casualty figures were revised upward from 13 to 14 fatalities. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky condemned the strike as a “horrific attack” and reiterated calls for intensified sanctions against Russia. Zelensky emphasized that restrictions should remain or even strengthen as long as Moscow continues its military operations in Ukraine. Photographs and videos circulated by the president’s office showed injured civilians being evacuated and bodies lying on the platform.
Ukrainian Railways said the assault was carried out using a jet-powered drone targeting the platform where a train en route from Dnipro to Zaporizhzhya was parked. Despite prior warnings about increased security threats, passengers remained on the platform at the time of the strike.
Dnipro Mayor Borys Filatov described the attack as a tragedy involving civilian targets. Ukraine has faced continual Russian attacks on its rail infrastructure and civilian transport since the full-scale invasion began over four years ago, with sustained Western support to bolster Ukrainian defenses.
In addition to the Dnipro assault, multiple air attacks across Ukraine on Thursday resulted in at least six more fatalities. In the northern city of Chernihiv, two 15-year-old girls were killed and 23 others wounded in an attack on the city center, roughly 100 kilometers from the Russian border, according to Dmytro Bryzhynskyi, the local military administration chief. He characterized the assault as terrorism directed at civilians but did not specify the weapon used.
In Kremenchuk, an industrial hub in east-central Ukraine’s Poltava region, three people died and 19 were injured, with 11 hospitalized after a drone struck a multi-story residential building, said Vitaliy Dyakinych, head of the local military administration. Meanwhile, in the Zaporizhzhya region, a 49-year-old man died and three others were hospitalized following an unspecified Russian attack near the village of Bilenke, according to military governor Mykhailo Semikin. Additional drone strikes targeting a public minibus and another bus in Zaporizhzhya injured two women, one of whom was reported to be in critical condition.
Separately, Ukrainian forces reportedly launched one of their most extensive drone attacks on Russian territory. Russia’s Defence Ministry stated that its air defenses intercepted 1,214 Ukrainian drones overnight, marking a significant escalation in Ukraine’s counteroffensive capabilities.