Russian drone strike kills 5 and injures at least 7 on passenger bus in Ukraine

KYIV, Ukraine -- A Russian drone struck a passenger bus in southern Ukraine early Wednesday, killing five people and wounding at least seven. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy described the attack, the latest in a series of Russian strikes on civilian transportation, as an “atrocity.”

The strike occurred in the Nikopol district of Ukraine’s Dnipropetrovsk region, near the war's southern front line. Oleksandr Hanzha, head of the regional military administration, said all five were killed at the scene while the seven wounded were receiving medical care.

In a post on social media site X, Zelenskyy described the vehicle as a minibus and said the strike had “no military rationale,” and that the incident was connected to Russia's targeting of logistics and critical infrastructure that has continued “unabated.”

Zelenskyy said a passenger train was also struck in the Mykolaiv region on Wednesday, damaging a railway station and a diesel locomotive. Nearly 170 passengers on board the train were evacuated before the strike. An electric locomotive in the northwestern city of Kovel was also struck, Zelenskyy said.

Russian strikes on Ukraine's rail network have resulted in over 500 locomotives being damaged or completely destroyed since the beginning of the war in February 2022, with more than half those strikes occurring this year, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha wrote on X on Tuesday.

Sybiha described such attacks as “systematic” and aimed at disrupting logistics across Ukraine. He said Ukraine urgently needs replacements for damaged locomotives, and called on the country's partners to assist in finding locomotives compatible with its 1,520 millimeter rail gauge and to assist in financing.

In another post on X on Wednesday, Sybiha said Russian forces were striking passenger trains, locomotives, stations and railway routes “knowing exactly how essential they are for civilians, evacuations, and Ukraine’s economy.”

“This is not collateral damage. It is a systematic hunt for people and an attempt to paralyse civilian life,” he wrote.

In an interview with CBS News on Tuesday, Zelenskyy pushed back against an earlier claim by U.S. President Donald Trump that Ukraine and Russia had agreed to mutually cease attacks on each other's energy infrastructure. Zelenskyy said Ukraine was ready to enter such an agreement if Russia stops striking Ukrainian energy facilities.

Trump said in a social media post Monday that such a truce had been reached, but didn’t offer details on the purported agreement. Previous efforts to broker even a partial ceasefire have repeatedly fallen apart within hours, with both sides accusing the other of violations.

In the CBS interview, Zelenskyy said the possibility of an energy truce was discussed during a recent meeting in Kyiv with Trump’s representatives Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, but that he had told them: “If the Russians are ready for an energy truce, that means there will be no attacks on energy facilities at all.”

The deputy head of the Russian armed forces’ military-political department, Lt. Gen. Apti Alaudinov, confirmed Wednesday that a decorated Russian general had been killed by a Ukrainian drone in the occupied Donetsk region.

Alaudinov, who did not provide details on the circumstances of Maj. Gen. Anton Grunis' death, hailed the officer as “one of the most respected generals … a real man and officer and a great patriot.”

“He has died as a hero, who has fulfilled his sacred duty,” Alaudinov said.

In July, Grunis reported to Russian President Vladimir Putin that his troops had captured the town of Kostiantynivka and he was later awarded with the Hero of Russia medal. Ukraine has disputed Kostiantynivka was fully taken by Russian forces.

Grunis had previously fought in Chechnya, a mainly Muslim republic whose bid for independence after the Soviet Union’s collapse led to years of war with Russian government forces, and also took part in Russia’s campaign in Syria.

In Ukraine, he commanded the 4th Guards Motorized Infantry Brigade.

Meanwhile, 17 other sites were damaged in Ukraine’s Kyiv region between Tuesday and Wednesday morning, according to the head of the Kyiv regional military administration, Tymur Tkachenko. Among the sites damaged were eight private homes, five vehicles, a municipal building, a hangar and a production facility, Tkachenko said on Telegram.

Zelenskyy said on X that the Kherson, Donetsk and Poltava regions had also come under attack.

Russia’s Defense Ministry said its air defenses downed 71 Ukrainian drones overnight. In the Belgorod region, one person was killed and four others were injured by Ukrainian strikes over the last 24 hours, according to acting governor Alexander Shuvayev.

___