At least five people were killed in a Russian drone strike on a civilian train in northeastern Ukraine, the country’s President Volodymyr Zelensky said, describing the attack as an “act of terrorism,”
CNN reports.
Emergency workers were confronted with scenes of carnage at the site of the attack in the Kharkiv region on Tuesday, with victims’ body parts strewn among the burnt wreckage, making it impossible to immediately determine the number of casualties.
Nearly 300 people were travelling on the train, which is used by Ukrainians to visit soldiers on the front lines.
“In any country, a drone strike on a civilian train would be regarded in the same way – purely as an act of terrorism,” Zelensky said in a statement on Telegram, adding that “18 people were in the carriage hit by one of the Russian drones.”
The Kharkiv Regional Prosecutor’s Office said the remains of five people had been found, and that identification would only be possible after DNA testing.
While Russia has previously targeted Ukraine’s railway infrastructure, a direct strike on a passenger train is unusual.
Ukrzaliznytsia, the national railway operator, said on Wednesday that two people were injured and one remains missing. The company said flags at all railway stations across the country would be lowered and a minute of silence observed to honour the victims.
Ukrzaliznytsia said the train was traveling from Chop and Lviv in western Ukraine to Barvinkove, on the edge of the Donetsk region. This is the closest station to the front lines, currently some 70 kilometers (43 miles) away.
