Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has condemned as terrorism a Russian drone attack on a crowded passenger train that local officials say killed at least five people and injured several others.
More than 200 people were on the train, officials said, when one of the carriages was hit by a drone and two other drones exploded nearby, in Ukraine's north-eastern Kharkiv region on Tuesday.
Zelensky stated there were 18 people in the carriage at the time and there was no military justification for targeting civilians.
Russia has not commented on the strike, but it has intensified drone and missile attacks on Ukraine's energy and transport infrastructure during the harshest winter in years.
Elsewhere in Ukraine, the southern port city of Odesa was hit by dozens of drones, resulting in three deaths and dozens more injuries. Energy officials reported substantial damage to a local facility as attacks persisted over several nights.
In the Kyiv region, a couple was killed, and their four-year-old child was injured when a residential building was hit. Millions are currently without heating, power, and water due to ongoing Russian assaults.
Since the full-scale invasion by Russia in February 2022, Moscow controls about 20% of Ukrainian territory, and the humanitarian crisis continues to deepen.
Zelensky remarked on social media that in any country, a drone strike on a civilian train would be considered in exactly the same way - purely as terrorism. Pictures from the scene display a severely damaged carriage still ablaze following the attack.
The strike near the village of Yazykove targeted a train traveling from the western border town of Chop to Barvinkove, utilized by local residents and soldiers alike for transit.
