Dnipro Railway Station Strike Kills 14 in Ukraine
A Russian drone slammed into a busy platform at the railway station in the Ukrainian city of Dnipro on Thursday, killing at least 14 people. President Volodymyr Zelensky called the attack horrific and said it demands action by Kyiv’s allies.
The Dnipro railway station strike hit a platform where a regular commuter train and a regular passenger train were standing, Zelensky said. By Thursday afternoon, Dnipropetrovsk regional governor Oleksandr Ganzha said the death toll had risen to 14, with another 14 people wounded. Six of the wounded were in severe condition with multiple shrapnel wounds.
The wounded included an 11-year-old boy. One man had both legs amputated, according to the governor. Images released by Ukrainian emergency services showed bodies on the platform, rescuers helping victims, and two burnt-out passenger trains with their windows shattered.
Dnipro railway station strike: a crowded platform
Reuters reported that the train at the platform was preparing to depart for the nearby city of Zaporizhzhia when the drone hit. Ukraine’s state railway company, Ukrzaliznytsia, said a jet-powered drone struck the platform at Dnipro’s main station. Ukraine’s air force said it intercepted three jet-powered drones in one daytime attack, but a fourth evaded its defences and hit the station.
The railway chief, Oleksandr Pertsovsky, said a heightened threat level had been announced beforehand. He added that a large number of people were still on the platform when the drone struck. That detail matters, because it shows the gap between a warning and safety at a busy station. A warning can clear some people, but a station at departure time stays crowded until the train leaves.
Russia has fired drones on trains across Ukraine since the first days of its 2022 invasion. The attacks have destroyed hundreds of locomotives and killed several railway workers, according to the report. Railways are civilian infrastructure, and they also carry troops, supplies, and evacuees. Striking a station platform at departure time therefore hits people who are simply trying to travel.
Strikes across Ukraine on the same day
The Dnipro deaths were part of a wider day of attacks. While a fragile local ceasefire held into a third day in the ravaged city of Oleshky, at least 20 people were killed and more than 70 injured in strikes across the country, according to local officials.
Oleshky has been under Russian occupation since 2022. Residents there have faced months of food, water, and medicine shortages. Zelensky said on Wednesday that it would be a huge success if the local ceasefire, brokered by United States First Lady Melania Trump, allowed stranded citizens to be evacuated.
At least six other people were killed in separate Russian attacks on Thursday, according to local officials. An attack on the city centre of Chernihiv, north of Kyiv, killed two 15-year-old girls and wounded nearly two dozen other people, including four children, the head of the city’s military administration, Dmytro Bryzhynsky, said. A drone slammed into a multi-storey residential building in the central city of Kremenchuk, killing three people and wounding several others, including a six-year-old, the local governor said.
Russia has intensified drone and missile attacks in recent weeks, hitting energy sites in what Kyiv says is a bid to plunge the country into cold and darkness through the winter. The Kremlin has vowed not to let up the overall pace of the war, even as the sides prepare to restart stalled talks under United States mediation.
Allies urged to keep pressure on Moscow
Zelensky used the Dnipro attack to renew his criticism of a deal struck between United States President Donald Trump and Russia’s President Vladimir Putin to ease some United States sanctions on Russia. The deal allows Moscow to release diesel onto global markets.
“How many such terrorist strikes has Russia carried out against our people since sanctions were lifted on some Russian oligarchs and the energy sector, instead of de-escalating,” Zelensky asked. He added that it is important that America does not remain silent about the killings.
