A Russian drone strike on a passenger train in the Odessa region of southern Ukraine has killed the train driver and his assistant, Ukrainian Railways said on Thursday.
The 340 passengers on board were being evacuated, the state rail operator said. The attack involved a drone, it added.
The drone operator must have known that this was a civilian train, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky wrote on social media. He published a video showing fire and destruction affecting part of the train.
Zelensky spoke of Russian attacks in 11 regions of the country during the night. He once again called for more air-defence support and greater pressure on Russia.
Russia has been waging a destructive war against Ukraine for nearly four and a half years. Russian attacks have repeatedly caused deaths and damage to rail services and railway stations.
Ukrainian drone counter-attacks have reached deep into Russian territory to strike energy facilities and infrastructure seen to support the war effort.
New Wildberries attack
Ukrainian forces set fire to an oil refinery and a warehouse belonging to Russia’s largest online retailer, Wildberries, in new drone strikes deep inside Russian territory, the head of the Republic of Bashkortostan, Radiy Khabirov, said on Thursday.
Khabirov said two people had been injured in the city of Salavat and taken to hospital.
Media also reported a drone strike and a fire at an oil refinery belonging to energy giant Gazprom.
Khabirov said Russian air defences had shot down 16 of an overall 21 drones, adding that the target of the attack had been a logistics centre.
Wildberries, whose warehouses have come under Ukrainian attack for weeks, confirmed the strike and the fire, saying the building had been evacuated.
Russia’s Investigative Committee accused Ukraine of carrying out another “terrorist attack” on civilian infrastructure.
Ukraine argues that Wildberries serves Russian war aims. The company and the Kremlin have categorically denied this, saying it is civilian infrastructure.
Commentators see the attacks as an attempt by Kiev to destabilize Russia through mounting economic problems.
Sevastopol power outage
Ukrainian drone attacks also left the port city of Sevastopol on the Russian-annexed Crimean Peninsula without power once again, Russian authorities said.
The Moscow-appointed governor of Sevastopol, Mikhail Razvozhayev, said the city had been cut off from the electricity supply following a “massive” Ukrainian attack, Russian state news agency TASS reported early on Thursday.
He said Russian forces were repelling the attack and experts were assessing the damage.
Kiev has responded to Russia’s invasion with drone strikes on strategically important targets deep inside Russian-held territory, including military facilities and oil and gas infrastructure.
The strikes are aimed at disrupting fuel supplies to the Russian military and reducing revenues available to Moscow to finance the war.