Kyiv Ukraine — A Russian drone strike on a passenger train in Ukraine’s northern Sumy region killed at least one person and injured more than 30 others on Saturday, Ukrainian officials said, marking one of the most severe assaults on civilian rail services since the start of Moscow’s full-scale invasion.
President Volodymyr Zelensky condemned the strike as a “savage” attack on civilians and called on the international community not to ignore what he described as terrorism. “The Russians could not have been unaware that they were striking civilians,” he wrote on X.
Regional prosecutors later confirmed that a 71-year-old man had been found dead inside a wrecked carriage. Local governor Oleh Hryhorov released photographs of burning passenger cars.
Officials said Russia launched two strikes in quick succession, hitting a commuter train and then a Kyiv-bound service during evacuation efforts. Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Oleksiy Kuleba said the tactic represented a so-called “double strike,” in which a second wave deliberately targets rescuers and evacuees.
Oleksandr Pertsovsky, head of Ukraine’s rail operator Ukrzaliznytsia, described the attack as “a vile attempt to sever communication with front-line communities.” Power supplies in Shostka, a city of 70,000 near the Russian border, were knocked out by the strike.
The assault followed Russia’s largest attack to date on Ukraine’s natural gas facilities, which Naftogaz, the state-owned energy company, said caused “critical damage” in Kharkiv and Poltava regions. According to Ukrainian officials, more than 35 missiles and 60 drones were fired at energy sites on Friday.
Ukraine’s air force reported that Russia launched 381 drones and 35 missiles in total that day, in what officials described as an effort to cripple the energy grid ahead of winter and weaken public morale. Some 50,000 households in the Chernihiv region were left without power.
Meanwhile, Ukraine claimed responsibility for striking the Kirishi refinery near St. Petersburg, one of Russia’s largest oil-processing plants. Local governor Alexander Drozdenko confirmed that seven drones were intercepted overnight and a fire was extinguished in an industrial zone, but did not specify the extent of damage. The facility, operated by Surgutneftegas, processes about 355,000 barrels of crude per day.
The strikes come amid heightened tensions between Moscow and Washington. President Vladimir Putin warned on Thursday that U.S. deliveries of long-range Tomahawk missiles to Kyiv would trigger “a new stage of escalation.”
Zelensky framed Saturday’s attack on the train as part of Russia’s broader strategy to weaponize the winter months by depriving civilians of heat, power, and transportation. “This is terror, and it must face a united response,” he said.
