At least 19 people have been killed in Russian drone and missile strikes across three Ukrainian cities, including 14 on a crowded railway platform in Dnipro.
The strikes on Thursday also killed two teenage girls in Chernihiv, northern Ukraine, and three people in Kremenchuk, in the central part of the country, officials said.
Ukrainian Prime Minister Sergiy Koretskyi accused Russia of deliberately targeting civilians, including people at railway stations, on trains and in residential buildings.
“Russia is deliberately hunting civilians: on trains, at stations, in residential buildings,” he said in a post on Telegram, describing the attacks as unjustifiable.
President Volodymyr Zelenskiy also condemned the strikes, describing them as “very cruel” and accusing Moscow of carrying out the attacks despite expectations of steps towards de-escalation.
Zelenskiy said Ukraine had intelligence indicating preparations for further Russian ballistic missile attacks, adding that Kyiv needed the necessary means to intercept them.
In Dnipro, state railway operator Ukrzaliznytsia said a jet-powered drone struck a platform at the city’s main railway station as a commuter train was preparing to depart.
The attack killed at least 14 people, according to officials.
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In Chernihiv, two teenage girls were killed and 23 people, including four children, were wounded in a drone attack on a busy street in the city centre.
The head of the city’s military administration, Dmytro Bryzhynskyi, said the victims were ordinary residents going about their daily activities.
In Kremenchuk, strikes on a residential block and private buildings killed three people and wounded 32, the regional governor said.
Russian drones also struck city buses in three separate attacks in Zaporizhzhia, south-eastern Ukraine, injuring six people, officials said.
The attacks came as a six-day local truce, brokered with United States assistance, took effect in the southern Kherson region, raising cautious hopes for renewed diplomatic engagement.
The agreement is limited to Kherson, where a humanitarian operation is underway to deliver aid to the Russian-held town of Oleshky, which has been isolated in the conflict zone since Russia launched its invasion in 2022.
Both sides issued similar statements confirming that de-mining operations had been completed, allowing the humanitarian mission to proceed. The operation is expected to enable aid deliveries and give residents the opportunity to leave the town if they wish.
Meanwhile, Russian attacks on critical infrastructure, including the railway network, have disrupted civilian life and damaged Ukraine’s economy, while the country faces shortages of air defence missiles.
Thursday’s strikes also came amid renewed efforts to revive United States-backed negotiations to end the war, Europe’s deadliest conflict since World War Two.
Further three-way talks are expected to take place this month, with Ukrainian officials calling on Kyiv’s international partners to increase pressure on Moscow.
Top presidential adviser Kyrylo Budanov said the attacks demonstrated Russia’s position in the negotiations.
“The deliberate mass killing of civilians right on the streets and in residential buildings in several Ukrainian cities in a single day these are Russia’s ‘arguments’ in negotiations,” he wrote on X.
