In the Russian drone attack on the train station in the city of Dnipro in eastern Ukraine, 13 people lost their lives and 5 others were injured. The attack took place on Thursday morning while a passenger train was stopping at the station.
Details of the Attack
According to the Ukrainian state railway operator, a jet-powered drone attacked the platform where people were waiting to board a train to Zaporizhzhia. Despite increased warnings about the threat of attacks, people continued to be present on the station platform.
Reactions to the Attack
The Ukrainian Air Force announced that it had shot down three drones in this daily attack, but another drone breached defenses and struck the station. Images shared on social media showed bodies lying on the station platform.
Borys Filatov, the mayor of Dnipro, called the incident a "tragedy." Volodymyr Zelensky, the President of Ukraine, described the attack as "horrific" and called for international action from Kyiv's allies. He emphasized that "sanctions against Moscow and its war machine must not be reduced as long as this Russian war continues."
Frequent Russian Attacks
Since the full-scale invasion of Ukraine began in February 2022, Russia has attacked Ukrainian stations and trains, destroying hundreds of locomotives and killing railway workers and passengers. With the increase in Russian drone attacks, Ukrainian trains have widely resorted to evacuating passengers even during travel since the beginning of this year.
Last September, over 5,800 trains were evacuated due to the threat of attacks. Most evacuations occur in areas close to the front lines, in the south and east of the country, such as Odesa, Dnipro, and Zaporizhzhia.
On Thursday, officials also reported the deaths of at least 5 more people in Russian attacks across Ukraine. An attack in the city center of Chernihiv, located north of Kyiv, killed two 15-year-old girls and injured more than a dozen others. Elsewhere, a drone struck a multi-story residential building in the city of Kremenchuk, resulting in the deaths of two people and injuries to several others, including a six-year-old child.
