A Russian drone strike has killed five people aboard a passenger train in northeastern Ukraine, prosecutors confirmed on Tuesday, an attack President Volodymyr Zelenskiy condemned as an act of terrorism.
The assault, which set the train on fire, occurred just hours after a separate barrage of Russian drones targeted the southern city of Odesa overnight, killing three and injuring 25. These incidents underscore Moscow’s escalating campaign of strikes, seemingly aimed at compelling Kyiv to cease hostilities.
Meanwhile, the capital Kyiv continues to grapple with the aftermath of last week’s attacks, with Energy Minister Denys Shmyhal reporting that 710,000 residents remain without power. This ongoing targeting of energy infrastructure forms part of Russia’s winter offensive, even as Ukraine faces international pressure to agree to a US-backed peace deal to end the nearly four-year conflict.
In northeastern Kharkiv Region, prosecutors said fragments of five bodies had been found at the scene of the strike on the train by a village. Photographs posted online showed at least two carriages in flames next to a snow-covered railbed.
“In any country, a drone strike on a civilian train would be considered in exactly the same way – purely as terrorism,” Zelenskiy wrote on the Telegram messaging app.
“Our cause – and this is what should unite all normal people in the world – is to ensure the progress of protecting life. This is possible through pressure on Russia.”
Zelenskiy had earlier decried a “brutal” attack by more than 50 drones on Odesa as Ukrainian and Russian negotiators prepare for new talks on Sunday.
“Every such Russian strike erodes the diplomacy that is still ongoing and undermines the efforts of partners who are helping to end this war,” Zelenskiy wrote on X.
Odesa Governor Oleh Kiper said two children and a pregnant woman were among the wounded in the strikes on the city. Dozens of residential buildings, a church, a kindergarten and a high school were damaged, he said.
By midday on Tuesday, rescue workers were still digging through a mountain of rubble outside a building where emergency officials said two residents had been killed. It was ripped open across several floors.
Resident Denys Tsybulskiy stood outside the building trying to reach his neighbour, who he said was trapped under the debris but had showed signs of using his phone.
“He can’t pick up the phone, he can’t talk, but there’s hope that he’s laying there,” he said.
An elderly man looked on as rescuers carried away the body of his 52-year-old daughter.
The overnight attack also led to the “colossal destruction” of an energy facility in the city, leading private power provider DTEK said in a statement.
