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A pair of Russian unmanned aerial vehicles struck trains at a station in Ukraine’s northern Sumy region, claiming one life and leaving roughly 30 injured, authorities reported on the weekend.

“A vicious Russian drone strike on the railway station in the town of Shostka, Sumy oblast,” wrote the president of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, on social media, sharing a video of a wrecked, burning passenger carriage and additional cars with their windows blown out.

Accusations of Deliberate Targeting

The foreign minister of Ukraine, Andrii Sybiha, accused Russian forces of intentionally carrying out a double strike on passenger trains.

“This is one of the most brutal strategies employed by Russia,” he stated in a announcement issued by his department.

The Sumy region’s governor, Oleh Hryhorov, said that eight people had been transported to medical facilities.

Civilian Impact

“The Russians could not have been unaware that they were attacking civilians. This is terrorism, which the world has a duty to address,” Zelenskyy wrote.

Russia has stepped up its airstrikes on Ukraine's rail network, striking it nearly daily over the past couple of months.

The Russian government has repeatedly denied targeting civilians in its conflict with Ukraine, although numerous individuals have been killed by its military.

Head of Railways Describes Attack

In a recorded discussion from a train traveling to the strike site, the CEO of the national railway Pertsovskyi told the media that the unmanned aircraft had aimed at locomotives, but had also damaged the connected passenger cars.

“In essence, they are hunting for engines,” he said, adding that Russian forces was more frequently using this method.

He explained the affected trains had been a regional passenger train and another train traveling toward the capital city, Kyiv.

Attempt to Create Fear

The rail boss said there was only civilian traffic at the rail station. He said he was convinced this was an attempt to make regions such as Shostka, about 50km from the Russian border, dangerous for civilian travel.

“They are doing everything to make regions near the front and border uninhabitable, so that individuals fear to go there, hesitant to use rail services, afraid to gather at markets, and so that students are reluctant to come back.”