Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has denounced a Russian drone strike on a passenger train in Ukraine’s north-eastern Kharkiv region as an act of “terrorism,” after local authorities reported at least five deaths and several injuries.
Officials said more than 200 passengers were aboard the train when a drone struck one of the carriages on Tuesday, while two other drones exploded nearby. Zelensky said 18 people were inside the affected carriage at the time and stressed there was no “military justification” for targeting civilians.
Russia has not commented on the incident. However, it has stepped up drone and missile attacks on Ukraine’s energy and transport infrastructure amid one of the harshest winters in recent years.
In a separate incident, dozens of drones targeted the southern port city of Odesa, killing three people and injuring many others, officials said. Energy authorities reported that a local facility sustained “enormous damage” overnight into Tuesday, while Odesa city chief Serhii Lysak said the attacks continued for a second consecutive night into Wednesday.
Meanwhile, police in the Kyiv region said a couple were killed and their four-year-old child was injured after a residential apartment block was struck in a district near the capital.
Read More: Ukraine condemns Russian strikes amid peace talks
Russian attacks have left millions of people across Ukraine without heating, electricity and water, according to officials.
Russian President Vladimir Putin launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, with Moscow now controlling about 20 percent of the country’s territory.
In a social media post late Tuesday, President Volodymyr Zelensky said: “In any country, a drone strike on a civilian train would be considered in exactly the same way – purely as terrorism.”
Images released by Ukraine’s emergency services showed a badly damaged carriage still on fire after the attack. Kharkiv regional prosecutors said the train was hit near Yazykove village while travelling from Chop to Barvinkove via Kharkiv, a route used by civilians and soldiers.
In Odesa, officials said more than 50 drones were launched overnight, killing three people. Despite recent Ukraine-Russia talks in the UAE involving US mediators, key territorial issues remain unresolved.
With inputs from BBC