A RUSSIAN strike has hit two trains at a train station in Ukraine’s northern Sumy region, killing one person and injuring at least 30 others, as Moscow continues its near-daily targeting of Ukraine’s railway infrastructure.
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy confirmed that 30 were wounded on Saturday, calling the strike on Shostka station in Sumy “savage”.
“The Russians could not have been unaware that they were striking civilians,” added Zelenskyy.
Hours later, local prosecutors said that a 71-year-old man was found dead in one of the wrecked carriages.
The site is around 50 kilometres (30 miles) from the Russian border.
Russia struck two passenger trains in quick succession, first targeting a local commuter service and then one bound for Kyiv, said Oleksiy Kuleba, Ukraine’s deputy prime minister and reconstruction minister. He said the second drone hit while an evacuation was underway.
In a message on Telegram, the acting mayor of Sumy, Artem Kobzar, said: “There are injured passengers. Rescuers, medics, and all emergency services are working at the scene.”
Regional governor Oleh Hryhorov posted a picture of a burning passenger carriage at the scene.
A train burns after being hit by the Russian drone strike, amid Russia’s attack on Ukraine,
The head of Ukraine’s national rail operator, Ukrzaliznytsia, Oleksandr Pertsovsky, called the strike “a vile attack aimed at stopping communication with our front-line communities”.
“There is no military purpose whatsoever,” he said. “The only purpose is to sow panic among people… that the connection will be destroyed and people will be left alone.”
Moscow has stepped up its air attack campaign on Ukraine’s railway infrastructure, hitting it almost every day over the past two months.
The attack on the train comes a day after Russia launched its biggest overnight air attacks on several regions of Ukraine, particularly emergency infrastructure for power grids and gas sites, raising concerns about the country’s energy supplies as winter looms again for the war’s fourth year.
A statement by the country’s Ministry of Energy said on Telegram that the attack comprised missiles and drones, and that rescuers and energy workers were working to eliminate the consequences of the attacks and stabilise the situation as soon as possible.
The overnight strikes cut off power to some 50,000 households in the northern Chernigiv region.
Ukraine’s army on Saturday also claimed to have struck a major oil refinery in Russia’s northwestern Leningrad region.
Kyiv has vowed to increase its own long-range drone attacks on Russian energy sites, in what it calls fair retribution for Russia’s daily attacks on its cities and power grid.