A Russian drone attack on the station of the major Ukrainian city of Dnipro killed at least 13 people on Thursday. Ten more people were injured, President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Thursday on the online service X, as reported by Interfax-Ukraine. Earlier, the governor of the Dnipropetrovsk region, Oleksandr Hanzha, had reported 13 dead and at least five injured on Telegram, as Ukrinform and the Austrian broadcaster ORF report.
According to the state railway operator Ukrzaliznytsia, a jet-powered drone hit a platform where train No. 866 towards Zaporizhzhia was standing. “Despite an announced heightened danger warning, people were present on the platform. There are dead and injured,” the news outlet NV reports, citing the railway. Rescue workers, medical personnel and security forces were deployed. The mayor of Dnipro, Borys Filatov, spoke of a “tragedy”: “A drone hit a civilian suburban train. Many people killed. Many injured,” he wrote, according to NV.
An attack on a crowded platform
According to NV, both a suburban train and a scheduled passenger train were at the platform at the time of the impact. According to NV, the Ukrainian air force had reported a jet-powered drone over Dnipro at around 10.50 a.m. local time. The broadcaster Suspilne reported one ambulance after another taking the injured from the station to hospitals; at least seven injured people had been admitted to clinics in the city. Zelensky confirmed the figure of 13 dead and ten injured on Thursday midday and, according to NV, published footage of the attack.
The president linked the attack to a political demand: Russia was continuing its “terror attacks” “since sanctions against certain Russian oligarchs and the Russian energy sector were eased instead of de-escalating”. That was why “new, stronger sanctions steps by the EU, the United States and the G7” were needed, Zelensky said, according to Interfax-Ukraine.
Cologne’s twin city and the memory of Kramatorsk
Dnipro is Cologne’s twin city; the “Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger” reports on the attack also with a view to this connection. The city of millions on the Dnipro has repeatedly been the target of missile and drone attacks since the start of Russia’s war of aggression. According to NV, Russia has been carrying out targeted attacks on Ukrainian stations and Ukrzaliznytsia’s infrastructure since the invasion in February 2022. According to the report, the deadliest attack on a station to date was the shelling of the station in Kramatorsk on 8 April 2022, in which 59 people died and more than 100 were injured; at the time, hundreds of people were waiting for evacuation trains.
Thursday’s attack falls in a phase in which Ukraine, according to Russian statements, has flown one of its largest counter-attacks to date. The Defence Ministry in Moscow announced on Thursday morning that it had repelled 1,214 Ukrainian drones over Russian territory, as ORF reports. There is no independent confirmation of this figure.
Ceasefire in Oleshky holds – aid to roll shortly
Meanwhile, the ceasefire in force since Tuesday in the Russian-occupied front-line town of Oleshky in the Kherson region is holding. Work to clear and defuse mines in the town was proceeding successfully in order to create a safer aid corridor, as the Ukrainian human rights commissioner Dmytro Lubinets and his Russian counterpart Yana Lantratova announced at the same time, the “Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger” reports, citing the news agency dpa. “In parallel, we are already assembling the humanitarian aid shipment that we want to bring to Oleshky tomorrow,” Lubinets said. According to the report, Lantratova said: “The ceasefire has already held for 54 hours. Both sides are fulfilling their obligations.” There were no violations.
Residents are to be able to leave the town via a humanitarian corridor this Saturday; those who stay are to receive food and medicines. According to estimates, about 1,500 to 2,000 people still live in Oleshky, including dozens of children – before the war there were 24,000. The ceasefire is scheduled to last until Sunday evening. It was mediated by US First Lady Melania Trump; according to the “Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger”, Pope Leo XIV also campaigned for the humanitarian pause in telephone calls with Kremlin chief Vladimir Putin and Zelensky.
Editor’s note: The attack on the station in Dnipro and the humanitarian operation in Oleshky are two separate events. The number of injured in Dnipro was corrected from five to ten over the course of Thursday; the president’s figure is authoritative.
