Two Russian drones struck trains at a station in Ukraine’s northern Sumy region, killing one person and injuring about 30 others, officials said on Saturday. Ukraine’s foreign minister accused Moscow of deliberately hitting passenger trains.
“A brutal Russian drone strike on the railway station in Shostka, Sumy region,” wrote President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Telegram, posting a video of a wrecked, burning passenger carriage. Ukraine’s foreign minister, Andrii Sybiha, accused Russia of deliberately conducting two strikes on passenger trains, calling it “one of the most brutal Russian tactics”.
Sumy region governor Oleh Hryhorov said eight people had been taken to hospital. Zelenskyy added: “The Russians could not have been unaware that they were targeting civilians. This is terrorism, which the world has no right to ignore.”
Moscow has stepped up airstrikes on Ukraine’s railway infrastructure, hitting it almost every day over the last two months. Russia has repeatedly denied targeting civilians, although many thousands have been killed by its military.
Oleksandr Pertsovskyi, CEO of Ukraine’s state rail company, said the drones had targeted locomotives but also damaged carriages. He said the trains hit were a local commuter service and a service to Kyiv, with only civilian traffic at the station. He believed Russia is trying to make border areas like Shostka unsafe for passenger traffic.
