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Ukrainian officials reported that a Russian jet-powered drone slammed into a platform at the main railway station in Dnipro where passengers had gathered to board a commuter train and a scheduled passenger service to Zaporizhzhia. The strike killed at least 13 people and wounded more than 10 others, including an 11-year-old boy, according to Dnipropetrovsk regional head Oleksandr Hanzha. Images released by emergency services showed a large crater in the platform with damaged trains nearby whose windows had been shattered by the blast. The state rail operator Ukrzaliznytsia noted that an elevated threat warning had been in place yet many people remained on the platform at the time of impact.
President Volodymyr Zelensky described the strike as a horrific attack that targeted a platform where both a regular commuter train and a passenger train stood waiting. Dnipro Mayor Borys Filatov called the incident a tragedy after a drone hit a civilian electric train, with many killed and numerous others wounded. Ukrzaliznytsia chief Oleksandr Pertsovsky stated that despite the danger warning a large number of people stayed exposed on the platform. Ukraine’s air force reported intercepting three drones during the daytime assault but confirmed a fourth evaded defences to hit the station.
Zelensky called for additional sanctions from the United States, Europe and the G7 against Russia in response to the strike. He repeated criticism of a deal reached earlier this month between Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin that eased certain sanctions on Russia and permitted US imports of Russian diesel. The Ukrainian leader posted images from rescue services on social media that depicted blurred bodies on the platform beside a blast-damaged train. Prime Minister Sergiy Koretskyi stated that Russia is deliberately hunting civilians on trains, at stations and in residential buildings.
The attack forms part of a pattern in which Russia has fired drones at trains across Ukraine since the start of its full-scale invasion in 2022. Ukrzaliznytsia told AFP that in September alone passengers were evacuated from more than 5,800 train services because of the threat of Russian drone strikes. Data from the rail operator shows hundreds of locomotives destroyed and several railway workers killed in such attacks over the past four years. The latest strike occurred as Ukraine’s railway network continues to face repeated targeting that disrupts both passenger and freight services.
Ukrainian officials linked the Dnipro incident to other Russian strikes carried out across the country on the same day that pushed the overall death toll higher. In Chernihiv two 15-year-old girls died and at least 23 people were wounded when a drone hit a busy central street, according to local authorities. A residential apartment building in Kremenchuk was struck, killing three people including children and injuring nine others. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs said at least 17 people died in the combined attacks on Ukrainian cities.
Russia has denied deliberately targeting civilians in its military campaign and offered no immediate comment on the Dnipro station strike. Ukrainian authorities have documented more than 1,500 Russian attacks on the railway network so far in 2026 that damaged passenger cars, locomotives and stations. The incidents have forced widespread evacuations and prompted increased monitoring by rail operators to protect passengers from incoming threats.
