Russian drone and missile attacks killed at least 20 people across Ukraine on Thursday, including 14 on a crowded railway platform in the eastern city of Dnipro, as strikes also hit homes and streets in other cities and killed one person in the capital Kyiv, officials said.
The attacks came on the same day that a six-day, US-brokered local truce in the southern Kherson region was supposed to offer a limited opening for humanitarian relief and renewed diplomatic engagement. The strikes elsewhere showed that civilians remain under threat even as efforts to revive peace talks gained momentum.
Ukraine's state railway operator said a jet-powered drone struck a platform at Dnipro's main railway station as a commuter train was preparing to leave, killing at least 14 people. Police placed victims in body bags on a pavement marked by shrapnel as air-raid sirens sounded, and a woman sheltering underground at the station asked what goal the attackers were trying to achieve.
Another strike in Dnipro hit a student dormitory and set it on fire, the regional governor said, and the day's attacks disrupted electricity supplies to 350,000 households in the city.
Kyiv hit by late-night missile strike
A missile attack struck districts of Kyiv shortly before 11 pm, killing one person, the city's military administration said. Warehouses caught fire, while falling debris damaged a building on the eastern side of the Dnipro River.
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy condemned the attacks as very cruel and deliberate at a moment when everyone expects de-escalation steps. He also warned that Ukraine had intelligence about preparations for new Russian ballistic missile strikes and said Kyiv was expecting decisions on the means to stop them.
Ukraine's prime minister said on Telegram that Russia was deliberately hunting civilians on trains, at stations and in residential buildings, and that there was no justification for it.
Teenagers among the dead in other cities
In the northern city of Chernihiv, two teenage girls were killed in a drone attack on a busy street in the city centre, and another 23 people, including four children, were wounded, officials said. The head of the city's military administration said ordinary, peaceful people were attacked while going to work and about their daily business.
In the central city of Kremenchuk, strikes on a residential apartment block and private buildings killed three people and wounded 32, the regional governor said. Russian drones also struck city buses in three separate attacks in the southeastern city of Zaporizhzhia, injuring six people, officials said.
Moscow denies deliberately targeting civilians, even as its bombing campaign has repeatedly killed civilians and damaged infrastructure across Ukraine.
Kherson truce allows humanitarian operation
The six-day truce applies only to the southern Kherson region, where it enabled preparations for a humanitarian operation to deliver assistance to the Russian-held town of Oleshky, which has been cut off in a war zone since Russia launched its full-scale invasion in 2022. Both sides issued near-identical statements saying de-mining operations had been completed, allowing the relief mission to proceed and residents to leave if they wish.
Elsewhere, Russian drone and missile strikes on critical infrastructure, including the railway network, have disrupted daily life and damaged Ukraine's economy, taking advantage of an acute shortage of air defence missiles.
A new round of trilateral talks is expected next month, and Ukrainian officials, including top presidential adviser Kyrylo Budanov, have urged Kyiv's partners to increase pressure on Moscow.
