At least five people were killed in a Russian drone attack on a civilian train in northeastern Ukraine, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said, calling the attack an “act of terrorism.”
On Tuesday, emergency workers were confronted by a scene of carnage at the scene of the attack in the Kharkiv region. Body parts of the victims were scattered around the burnt ruins, making it impossible to immediately determine the number of casualties.
Nearly 300 people are on board the train, which is used by Ukrainians to visit soldiers on the front lines.
“A drone attack on a civilian train in any country would likewise be considered a purely terrorist act,” Zelenskiy said in a statement on Telegram. “There were 18 people in the car due to the collision with one Russian drone,” he added.
The Kharkiv district prosecutor’s office said that five bodies had been found and identification would only be possible after DNA testing.
Russia has previously targeted Ukraine’s railway infrastructure, but a direct attack on a passenger train is unusual.
State railway operator Ukrzaliznitsia announced on Wednesday that two people were injured and one was missing. The company announced that it would lower flags and observe a minute’s silence at all train stations nationwide in memory of the victims.
The train was traveling from Chop and Lviv in western Ukraine to Barvinkove on the edge of the Donetsk region, Ukrainian News Agency said. This is the closest station to the front line, currently about 70 kilometers (43 miles) away.
Ukraine’s Deputy Prime Minister Oleksiy Kuleba said the drone hit the front of the train’s locomotive and a passenger car.
Video provided by the Ukrainian government showed the train after the attack, with smoke and flames pouring out of the broken windows of the destroyed cars.
Another video shows a young woman being rescued from a train with her small baby. Clearly in pain and shock, she could be heard sobbing and explaining that she was traveling to “show my son to his father.”
Footage posted on social media showed passengers, including people with small children, evacuating the burning train and walking into snow-covered woods beside the tracks, bags in hand.
Ukraine’s government announced on Wednesday that it would temporarily reduce some rail connections, particularly in the Kharkiv region, and warned that Russia was stepping up attacks on its rail network.
It announced that special traffic conditions would be introduced in certain sections, especially near the front lines and in areas where an increase in Russian military activity has been recorded. Passengers were warned to allow extra time in case of delays.
“Punctuality and speed are important to us, but nothing is more important than safety,” the railway operator said.
French President Emmanuel Macron called the passenger train attack “unacceptable” and posted on X on Wednesday that he had met with Zelenskiy.
Russia has previously launched strikes against Ukrainian railway stations. One of the deadliest attacks of the war occurred in 2022, when Russian forces fired a missile at a train station in the eastern Ukrainian city of Kramatorsk, killing 61 people, including several children.
The French president also condemned Russian attacks on civilians and energy infrastructure and pledged to provide generators to Ukraine.
“We are united in the face of an emergency. After the G7+ meeting, co-chaired by France, generators will be sent to Ukraine to help the people survive the winter,” President Macron wrote.
Tuesday’s train attack came shortly after Russia launched a major overnight attack on Ukraine’s Odessa region, killing at least three people and wounding dozens. Zelenskiy said the attacks targeted energy infrastructure and civilian facilities.
According to the country’s Energy Ministry, the capital of Ukraine, Kiev, continues to be without power due to Russia’s energy infrastructure strike, and several other regions, including Odessa, Kharkiv and Donetsk, are also without power.
Over Wednesday, there were more deadly Russian attacks across Ukraine. In the Kiev region, a couple was killed when a missile hit their apartment while they were sleeping, but the woman’s 4-year-old daughter survived.
Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty journalist Marian Kushnir, who also lived in the apartment, told how she found the crying child wrapped in a blanket.
“I was at home when I heard the explosion. The drone hit the roof of the building and hit the top floor of a two-story apartment building,” the news agency quoted Kushnir as saying.
Kushnir said he ran upstairs to the scene of the crash, found the child and carried him out of the burning building, then returned to check for other survivors.
“I ran to the child, got her off the couch, carried her out of the apartment, handed her to a neighbor and ran back inside. I thought maybe the person inside was still alive, but the fire had already spread quite widely,” he said.
Meanwhile, in Russia, a Ukrainian drone strike killed one man in the Belgorod region, Russian state news agency RIA Novosti reported on Wednesday.
Two Ukrainian drones collided with a car, and a man at the scene died from his injuries, RIA reported, citing the region’s governor Vyacheslav Gladkov.
