At least 14 people were killed when a Russian jet-powered drone struck a crowded platform at the main railway station in Dnipro, Ukraine, on Thursday, Ukrainian officials said. The toll rose during the day as rescuers worked through the wreckage, and the number of wounded was reported at more than ten, including an 11-year-old boy.

State railway operator Ukrzaliznytsia said the drone hit a platform where commuter train No. 866 was preparing to depart for Zaporizhzhia. The operator said an elevated danger warning had been issued before the strike, but many people were still on the platform when it hit.

Zelensky urges tougher sanctions

President Volodymyr Zelensky described the attack as a strike on a station where a commuter train and a regular passenger train were standing, and called for stronger sanctions on Russia from the United States, Europe and the G7. Dnipro mayor Borys Filatov said a civilian electric train had been hit, while regional governor Oleksandr Hanzha confirmed the rising death toll on Telegram.

Moscow has not commented publicly on the Dnipro strike and has consistently denied deliberately targeting civilians, despite repeated attacks on Ukraine's rail network and energy infrastructure.

Deadly strikes elsewhere in Ukraine

The Dnipro attack was part of a wider wave of daytime strikes. Two 15-year-old girls were killed and 23 people wounded in a drone attack on a busy street in Chernihiv, in northern Ukraine, while three people were killed in a strike on an apartment building in the central city of Kremenchuk. The attacks came even as a local humanitarian truce held around the southern town of Oleshky, raising cautious hopes of a return to diplomacy.

Sources: Reuters, New York Post (Reuters report)