KYIV (The Thursday Times) — At least 14 people were killed on Thursday when a Russian jet-powered drone hit a crowded platform at the main railway station in the central Ukrainian city of Dnipro, where a passenger train was waiting to leave, local officials said.
Oleksandr Hanzha, head of the Dnipropetrovsk region, said at least 14 others were wounded, six of them critically, including an 11-year-old boy. The state railway operator, Ukrzaliznytsia, said a train bound for Zaporizhzhia was at one of the platforms when the drone struck.
Ukraine’s air force said it had intercepted three jet-powered drones in the daytime attack, but a fourth got through and hit the station. Railway chief Oleksandr Pertsovsky said an elevated threat level had been announced beforehand, “but unfortunately there were still a large number of people on the platform”.
Calls for sanctions
President Volodymyr Zelensky called the strike “horrific”, saying Russian forces had hit a platform where a commuter train and a passenger train were standing. He called for further US, European and G7 sanctions on Russia and again criticised a deal struck this month between Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin that eased some sanctions, allowing the United States to import Russian diesel.
Russia’s military did not comment on the strike. Moscow denies targeting civilians and says its attacks on railways are aimed at infrastructure used to move troops and equipment.
Railways under fire
Attacks on Ukraine’s railway network have risen sharply. Of the 521 locomotives hit since Russia’s full-scale invasion began, almost 60 per cent were hit this year, according to Ukrzaliznytsia figures supplied to AFP, and attacks on railway facilities have climbed from 1,206 in 2025 to 1,700 so far this year.
Elsewhere on Thursday, two 15-year-old girls were killed in a Russian missile strike on the centre of Chernihiv, in the north, the regional head said. The attacks came as Russia said 613 Ukrainian drones had been launched overnight towards the Moscow region, where African leaders were gathering for a Russia-Africa summit, and as a fragile local ceasefire held for a third day in the occupied town of Oleshky.
