At least 30 people have been injured following a Russian drone strike on a railway station in north-east Ukraine, Ukrainian President Volodymy Zelensky has said.
In a post on X, he said that preliminary reports indicated train staff and passengers were at the site of the strike in the city of Shostka, in the Sumy region.
Emergency services are on the scene and have begun helping people, he said, adding that information regarding the injured was still being established.
He also posted a video showing a damaged train carriage on fire.
The Russians could not have been unaware that they were targeting civilians. This is terrorism, which the world has no right to ignore, Zelensky wrote on X. Every day Russia takes people's lives. And only strength can make them stop.
According to the regional governor Oleh Hryhorov and the Ukrainian Railways body, there were two strikes which hit two passenger trains.
Three children, aged 8, 11 and 14, were among the injured, Hryhorov said.
The second strike hit at a time when evacuations from the area were already under way, a statement from the railways body said.
It represented a vile attack aimed at stopping communication with our frontline communities, the statement continued. Shostka lies in north-eastern Ukraine, some 50km from the Russian border.
Zelensky in his post also called for action from the West, saying: We've heard resolute statements from Europe and America – and it's high time to turn them all into reality.
Russia has intensified its aerial assaults on Ukraine in recent weeks, regularly launching hundreds of drones and dozens of missiles, prompting Ukraine to urge its Western allies for advanced air defense weaponry.
