Russian drone strike hit passenger trains in Ukraine's northern Sumy region killing one person and injuring about 30 others, officials said.
At least 30 people were hurt in the strike on a railway station in Shostka on Saturday.
Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky said on X: "A savage Russian drone strike on the railway station in Shostka, Sumy region.
"All emergency services are already on the scene and have begun helping people. All information about the injured is being established.
"So far, we know of at least 30 victims. Preliminary reports indicate that both Ukrzaliznytsia staff and passengers were at the site of the strike.”
Ukraine's foreign minister Andrii Sybiha accused Russia of deliberately conducting the two strikes on passenger trains.
"This is one of the most brutal Russian tactics — the so-called ‘double tap’, when the second strike hits rescuers and people being evacuated," he said in a statement.
A train heading to Kyiv had been hit along with a local commuter service, authorities said.
A savage Russian drone strike on the railway station in Shostka, Sumy region. All emergency services are already on the scene and have begun helping people. All information about the injured is being established. So far, we know of at least 30 victims. Preliminary reports… pic.twitter.com/ZZoWfPmpL5
— Volodymyr Zelenskyy / Володимир Зеленський (@ZelenskyyUa) October 4, 2025
Zelensky shared footage of the strike, adding: “ The Russians could not have been unaware that they were striking civilians. And this is terror the world must not ignore. Every day Russia takes people’s lives. And only strength can make them stop.
“We’ve heard resolute statements from Europe and America – and it’s high time to turn them all into reality, together with everyone who refuses to accept murder and terror as normal. Lip service is not enough now. Strong action is needed.
Moscow has stepped up its air strike campaign on Ukraine's railway infrastructure, hitting it almost every day over the last two months.
Russia has repeatedly denied targeting civilians in its war in Ukraine, although many thousands have been killed by its military.
In a video interview from a train en route to the strike site, the CEO of Ukraine's state rail company Oleksandr Pertsovskyi told Reuters that the drones had targeted locomotives, also damaging the carriages attached to them.
"In essence, they are hunting for locomotives," he said, adding that Russia was increasingly deploying this tactic.
The rail chief added that there was only civilian traffic at the station, and that he believed this was an attempt to make areas like Shostka, which is about 50 kilometres (30 miles) from the Russian border, unsafe for passenger traffic.
"They are doing everything to make frontline and border areas uninhabitable, so that people are afraid to go there, afraid to board trains, afraid to gather at markets, and so that students are afraid to return home."
