Russian missile strikes Ukrainian train station, 1 dead, 30 injured

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Smoke billows above a passenger train struck by a Russian drone attack in Ukraine, at the Shostka railway station in Sumy region, October 4, 2025.—

Two Russian drones hit trains at a station in Ukraine’s northern Sumy region, killing one person and injuring around 30 others, officials reported Saturday. Ukraine’s foreign minister accused Moscow of intentionally targeting passenger trains.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky posted on Telegram, describing it as a brutal Russian drone assault on the Shostka railway station. He shared footage of a damaged, burning passenger carriage and others with shattered windows.

Ukraine’s foreign minister, Andrii Sybiha, charged Russia with deliberately conducting two strikes on passenger trains.

“This is one of the brutal tactics Russia employs—the so-called ‘double tap,’ where the second strike hits rescuers and evacuees,” he explained in a statement via social media.

Sumy regional governor Oleh Hryhorov noted that eight individuals were hospitalized.

Zelensky condemned the attack, emphasizing its brutality: “The Russians had to be fully aware they were targeting civilians. This is terrorism that cannot be ignored by the world.”

In recent months, Moscow has intensified its airstrikes on Ukraine’s railway infrastructure, hitting it nearly every day for the past two months.

Though Russia denies targeting civilians, thousands have been killed in the ongoing conflict.

Drones focus on locomotives

In a video interview from a train en route to the attack site, Oleksandr Pertsovskyi, CEO of Ukraine’s state railway, told Reuters that the drones had targeted locomotives and also damaged attached carriages.

“They are essentially hunting for locomotives,” he said, noting Russia is increasingly employing this tactic.

The trains hit were part of a local commuter service and another headed to Kiev.

Pertsovskyi added that only civilian traffic was present at the station. He believes the aim was to make Shostka, located about 30 miles (50 kilometers) from the Russian border, unsafe for passenger travel.

“They are trying to make frontline and border areas uninhabitable so people fear traveling, boarding trains, shopping at markets, or even returning home for students.”