Thirteen people have been killed after a Russian jet-powered drone hit a crowded platform at Dnipro railway station in the country’s north, Ukrainian officials have said.
Dnipropetrovsk regional head Oleksandr Hanzha said at least 10 others were wounded in the attack, including an 11-year-old boy.
According to the Ukrainian railway operator, Ukrzaliznytsia, a train headed for Zaporizhzhia was at one of the platforms in Dnipro when the drone hit.
Moscow has repeatedly targeted Ukraine’s large railway network but it denies deliberately targeting civilians.
Elsewhere in Ukraine, two girls aged 15 were killed in a Russian missile attack on the centre of Chernihiv city, in the north of the country, regional head Vyacheslav Chaus said. At least 11 others, including more children, were injured, he added.
In Dnipro, an elevated threat level was announced ahead of Thursday’s strike, according to Ukraine Railways head Oleksandr Pertsovsky.
“But unfortunately there were still a large number of people on the platform,” he said.
Dnipro Mayor Borys Filatov said the incident was a tragedy, adding that a drone hit a civilian electric train.
Pictures from the Ukrainian rescue services show a large hole ripped in a platform strewn with blurred-out bodies, near a blast-damaged train with smashed windows.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said “the Russians used a drone to attack a platform where a regular commuter train and a regular passenger train were standing.”
He called for further US, European and G7 sanctions on Russia following the incident and repeated his criticism of a controversial deal struck earlier this month between Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin, which eased some sanctions on Russia, allowing the US to import Russian diesel.
Credit: bbc.com
