Russian drone strike on Dnipro station kills 14, injures 14

Russian forces killed 14 people and wounded 14 others in a drone strike on a platform at Dnipro railway station on Thursday morning, Ukrainian officials said, raising an earlier toll of 13 dead and 10 injured. President Volodymyr Zelensky called it a "horrific attack" and urged Western allies to impose tougher sanctions on Russia.

A Russian jet-powered drone hit the platform where a train travelling from Dnipro to Zaporizhzhia was waiting to depart, Ukrainian Railways said. Dnipropetrovsk regional governor Oleksandr Hanzha said the toll rose in stages through the day to 14 dead and 14 injured; 13 of the injured were hospitalised, with six in a serious condition, including an 11-year-old boy.

Ukraine's air force said four Russian jet-powered drones targeted the Dnipro area at around 11:00 local time; air defences shot down three of them before they reached their targets. Ukrzaliznytsia chairman Oleksandr Pertsovskyi said a heightened-danger warning had been issued before the strike, but a large number of people were still on the platform when it hit.

Russian forces carried out further deadly strikes elsewhere in Ukraine on Thursday. A missile attack on the centre of Chernihiv killed two 15-year-old girls and injured at least 23 people, including four children, regional governor Viacheslav Chaus and city administration head Dmytro Bryzhynskyi said. In Kremenchuk, Russian drones hit an apartment building, killing at least three people and injuring 15, local authorities said. A drone also hit a minibus in Zaporizhzhia, killing one man, while a 15-year-old girl was wounded in a separate strike on Pavlohrad, officials said.

Zelensky said Russia had used a drone to attack a platform where "a regular commuter train and a regular passenger train" were standing. He asked how many such attacks Russia had carried out since Western allies lifted sanctions on some Russian oligarchs and energy companies, instead of de-escalating, and called for tougher sanctions from the EU, the United States and the G7. French President Emmanuel Macron said it was "unacceptable" that Russia kept pursuing escalation and targeting civilians.