War in Ukraine: Russian attack on Dnipro station leaves at least 13 dead

At least 13 people were killed and five injured Thursday in a Russian drone strike on a platform at the train station in Dnipro, a large city in east-central Ukraine, authorities said. A Russian jet drone struck a platform where a train was running from Dnipro to Zaporizhia, a regional capital in the south of the country, state railway company Ukrzaliznytsia said.

Despite the air attack alert, people were on the platform, the company said in a statement. In images circulating on social networks, we could see bodies strewn on a station platform and police officers kneeling near them. Russia has targeted trains and stations across Ukraine since the first day of its large-scale invasion launched on February 24, 2022, destroying hundreds of locomotives and killing railway workers and commuters.

The majority of evacuations take place in regions close to the front line

Faced with an increase in Russian drone attacks, the railways began massive evacuations of passengers this year, particularly from trains en route. In September alone, more than 5,800 trains had to be evacuated due to threats of strikes, Ukrzaliznytsia told AFP in early October. The majority of evacuations are taking place in regions close to the front line, in the south and east of the country: Odessa, Dnipropetrovsk and Zaporizhia.

If a threat of a Russian strike is detected, the train stops and passengers must leave their carriages and wait from a distance for the danger to end. Since the closure of air transport due to the war, Ukraine's immense railway network has become essential for transporting people and goods across the country, as well as entering and exiting Ukraine.