Ukraine-Russia war latest: Dozens injured after Putin strikes Kyiv-bound passenger train – UK Times

Russian drones and missiles pounded Ukraine’s power grid overnight into Saturday, a Ukrainian energy firm said, a day after what officials described as the biggest attack on Ukrainian natural gas facilities since Moscow’s all-out invasion more than three-and-a-half years ago.

The strike damaged energy facilities near Chernihiv, a northern city close to the Russian border, and sparked blackouts set to affect some 50,000 households, according to regional operator Chernihivoblenergo.

The head of Chernihiv’s military administration, Dmytro Bryzhynskyi, confirmed a night time Russian attack on the city caused multiple fires, but did not immediately say what was hit.

The day before, Russia launched its biggest attack of the war against natural gas facilities run by Ukraine’s state-owned Naftogaz Group, Ukrainian officials said.

Russia fired a total of 381 drones and 35 missiles at Ukraine on Friday, according to Ukraine’s air force, in what officials said was an attempt to wreck the Ukrainian power grid ahead of winter and wear down public support for the three-year-old conflict.

Naftogaz’s chief executive, Serhii Koretskyi, said on Friday the attacks had no military purpose, while Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Svyrydenko accused Moscow of “terrorising civilians”.

Moscow claimed the strikes targeted facilities that support Kyiv’s war effort.

Overnight into Saturday, Russian forces launched a further 109 drones and three ballistic missiles at Ukraine, the Ukrainian military reported.

It said 73 of the drones were shot down or sent off course.

At least 30 people sustained injuries in a “savage” Russian drone strike on Saturday on a Ukrainian railway station, said Volodymyr Zelensky,

The attack took place in Shostka, a city northeast of Kyiv that lies some 70km from the Russian border.

“All emergency services are already on the scene and have begun helping people. All information about the injured is being established,” he said in a post on X.

Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky has condemned Russia’s drone strike on a passenger train in Ukraine, sharing video of a wrecked, burning carriage and others with their windows blown out.”A brutal Russian drone strike on the railway station in Shostka, Sumy region,” he wrote on Telegram.

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,” Zelensky wrote.

Moscow has stepped up its airstrikes on Ukraine’s railway infrastructure, hitting it almost every day over the last two months.

Czechs voted on Saturday in the final day of an election likely to return populist billionaire Andrej Babis to power on pledges to raise wages and lift growth, while reducing aid for Ukraine.

The change from the current centre-right cabinet would boost Europe’s populist, anti-immigration camp and could harden opposition to the European Union’s climate goals.

Czechs endured surges in inflation after the global pandemic and Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine, and have only slowly recovered from one of Europe’s worst drops in real incomes.

That, as well as several corruption scandals, damaged prime minister Petr Fiala’s Spolu coalition and its liberal government allies, who focused on a gradual reduction of the budget deficit.

Babis, whose Ano party held double-digit leads in most opinion polls, is an ally of Hungary’s nationalist prime minister Viktor Orban in the Patriots for Europe group in the European Parliament.

Babis, who was previously prime minister from 2017-21, has taken an ambivalent line on aid to Ukraine – a departure from Fiala’s government which has supported Kyiv throughout the war with Russia.

A Russian strike hit a passenger train in Ukraine’s northern Sumy region causing casualties among the passengers, regional governor Oleh Hryhorov said on Saturday.

Hryhorov said the Russian attack had targeted a railway station, and that a train heading to Kyiv had been hit.

No figure was given for the number of casualties, but the governor posted a picture of a burning passenger carriage and said medics and rescuers were working on the scene.

Moscow has stepped up its air strike campaign on Ukraine’s railway infrastructure, hitting it almost every day over the last two months.