KYIV: A Russian drone strike hit a passenger train at a station in Ukraine's northern Sumy region, injuring dozens of people, officials said on Saturday. "A brutal Russian drone strike on the railway station in Shostka, Sumy region," Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky wrote on Telegram, posting a video of a wrecked, burning passenger carriage and others with their windows blown out. He said dozens of passengers and rail workers were wounded.
Regional governor Oleh Hryhorov said the attack hit a train heading from Shostka to the capital, Kyiv. Medics and rescuers were working on the scene, he said. The head of the local district administration, Oksana Tarasiuk, told Ukraine's public broadcaster that about 30 people were injured by the strike. No fatalities were reported in the immediate aftermath.
"The Russians could not have been unaware that they were targeting civilians. This is terrorism, which the world has no right to ignore," Zelenskiy wrote. Moscow has stepped up its air strikes on Ukraine's railway infrastructure, hitting it almost everyday over the last two months.
Separately, the head of the UN's nuclear watchdog urged Ukraine and Russia to show the "political will" required to keep the area around the Russian-held Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant safe to allow the external power line to be reconnected to the facility. The plant, Europe's largest with six reactors, was seized by Russian forces in the early weeks of Moscow's attack of Ukraine. The facility has been cut off from external power since September 23 — the 10th time the line has come down.
The plant produces no electricity, but fuel in its reactors is being cooled by emergency diesel generators. Rafael Grossi, director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency, said the external line had to be restored. "Both sides say they stand ready to conduct the necessary repairs on their respective sides of the frontline. But for this to happen, the security situation on the ground must improve so that the technicians can carry out their vital work without endangering their lives," Grossi said in a statement. "I'm calling on both sides to do what is necessary to prevent a further deterioration. It is a question of political will, not whether it is technically possible, which it is." Each side accuses the other of compromising nuclear safety.
Russian President Vladimir Putin warned Ukraine that it was playing a dangerous game by launching strikes near the plant. Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha accused Moscow of deliberately cutting the link in order to connect the station to its own grid. In his statement, Grossi also said that an external power cutoff this week at the decommissioned Chornobyl nuclear power plant — site of the world's worst civil nuclear accident in 1986 — had lasted 16 hours. He said the containment vessel erected in 2016 to prevent contamination had experienced a partial blackout and had no reserve power for three hours when a power line to the nearby town of Slavutych came down. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Russia deliberately staged the attack that cut power to the station.
On Friday, a massive Russian air assault struck several of Ukraine's main gas production facilities in some cases causing critical damage as Ukraine prepares for a new heating season. Russia fired 35 missiles and 60 drones at sites of the state gas and oil company Naftogaz in the Kharkiv and Poltava regions overnight, said CEO Sergii Koretskyi, adding the attack was the biggest of the war on gas production. "As a result of this attack, a significant portion of our facilities has been damaged. Some of the destruction is critical," he said on Facebook, adding that there was "no military rationale" for this strike. The Russian Defence Ministry confirmed its forces had carried out massive overnight strikes on Ukraine's gas and energy infrastructure, saying it had also attacked military-industrial facilities. — Reuters
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