photo: Kharkiv Regional Prosecutor’s Office on Telegram/Ukrainian passenger train destroyed by Russian drones
Russia has carried out another deadly attack on Ukraine’s civilian rail transport. A drone strike on a passenger train in the Kharkiv region killed and injured passengers, reinforcing concerns that railways have become a deliberate target in the full-scale war.
Russian attacks on Ukraine are increasingly targeting railway transport, a backbone of both civilian life and national logistics. The latest and most brutal incident occurred last week, when Russian drones struck a civilian passenger train in the Kharkiv region. One of the drones directly hit a passenger carriage carrying 18 people, causing fatalities and injuries among civilians.
Drone Strike on a Civilian Passenger Service
Despite ongoing international discussions about a possible end to the war, Russia’s actions on the ground suggest otherwise. According to information published on Telegram by the Kharkiv Regional Prosecutor’s Office, Russian forces attacked a passenger train near the village of Yazykove, within the Barvinkove territorial community of the Izium district. The train was operating on the Chop – Kharkiv – Barvinkove route.
Ukraine’s Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Communities and Territorial Development, Oleksiy Kuleba, confirmed the incident, stating that three Shahed-type drones were used in the attack. Impacts were recorded near the diesel locomotive and directly on a passenger carriage, where a fire subsequently broke out. At the time of the strike, 291 passengers were on board. All were evacuated as quickly as possible.
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Zelenskyy: Attack on a Civilian Train is Terrorism
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy condemned the strike in unusually blunt terms. He stated that in any country, an attack by drones on a civilian train would be classified exclusively as terrorism, with no room for interpretation. According to Zelenskyy, there is no military objective that could justify targeting civilians inside a railway carriage. Moscow, meanwhile, continues to lie that Russian forces do not target civilian infrastructure.
Railways Under Sustained Pressure on Both Sides
The attack in the Kharkiv region was not an isolated case. Ukrainian officials reported that within 24 hours, at least seven drone strikes targeted railway infrastructure elsewhere in the country. Damaged assets included parked electric multiple units, freight wagons, locomotives, tracks, overhead lines, and administrative buildings. While these attacks did not result in fatalities, their operational impact was significant.
Ukraine has also intensified strikes on Russian logistics. In recent weeks, Ukrainian drones disrupted rail traffic in Russia’s Voronezh region, temporarily halting a strategic supply corridor towards Donbas. Separate acts of sabotage on the Trans-Siberian Railway reportedly derailed freight trains and interrupted the flow of North Korean ammunition, a critical supply line for Russian artillery.
Despite a 16-hour air raid alert in the affected Ukrainian regions, rail operations did not fully stop. Kuleba noted that Russia is systematically attempting to paralyse transport networks, just as it attacks energy, water, and heating infrastructure. For security reasons, Ukrainian Railways has been forced to restrict services between Dnipro and Zaporizhzhia, rerouting trains and deploying replacement bus services. Railway staff, however, continued working even during air alerts to maintain at least partial operations.