Ukraine’s Zelensky condemns Russian drone strike that killed five on passenger train

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky denounced as “terrorism” a Russian drone attack on a crowded passenger train that local officials said killed at least five people and injured many others.

Officials said one of the carriages with more than 200 people on a train in northeastern Ukraine’s Kharkiv region was hit by a drone on Tuesday and two other drones exploded nearby.

Zelensky said that there were 18 people in the carriage at the time and there was no “military reason” to target civilians.

Russia has not commented on the attack, but it has stepped up drone and missile attacks on Ukraine’s energy and transport infrastructure during one of its harshest winters in years.

Elsewhere in Ukraine, dozens of drones struck the southern port city of Odessa, killing three people and injuring dozens more, officials said.

Energy officials said a local facility suffered “huge damage” on Tuesday night, and Odessa Mayor Serhii Lysak said the attacks continued for a second night into Wednesday.

Meanwhile, in the Kiev region, a couple was killed and their four-year-old child was injured in an attack on a residential complex near the capital, police said.

Millions of people across Ukraine have lost heat, electricity and water following the Russian attack.

Russian President Vladimir Putin launched a full-scale invasion in February 2022, and Moscow currently controls about 20% of Ukraine’s territory.

“In any country, a drone attack on a civilian train would be viewed in exactly the same way – as pure terrorism,” Zelensky wrote in a social media post late Tuesday.

Pictures and footage released by Ukraine’s emergency services showed at least one badly damaged carriage still burning after the attack.

The Kharkiv district prosecutor’s office said the train was hit near the village of Yazikov.

The train will depart from the western border town of Chop and pass through the regional capital Kharkiv to Barvinkov in the Kharkiv region, the office said.

The line extends eastward into the Donetsk region and is used by local residents as well as Ukrainian soldiers traveling to and from the area.

Odessa officials said that as of Tuesday, Russia had launched more than 50 drones at the port.

After the strike, several floors of a residential building collapsed and three bodies were found in the rubble, while other buildings were also damaged.

While Ukraine and Russia held their latest round of talks last week aimed at ending the war, Russia’s daily air strikes have continued.

U.S. negotiators also held talks in the UAE, which were praised by all parties as constructive.

However, key territorial issues remain unresolved and further meetings are expected this weekend.