Drone strike on passenger bus kills 5 in Nikopol

A Russian drone struck a passenger bus in the Nikopol district of southern Ukraine early Wednesday, killing five people and wounding at least seven. The strike hit the Nikopol district of 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. The seven wounded were receiving medical care, Hanzha said.

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy described the attack in a post on X as an “atrocity” and the latest in a series of Russian strikes on civilian transportation. Zelenskyy described the vehicle as a minibus and said the strike had “no military rationale.”

Zelenskyy said the incident was connected to Russia’s targeting of logistics and critical infrastructure that has continued “unabated.”

Zelenskyy also said a passenger train was struck Wednesday in the Mykolaiv region, 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.

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha wrote on X on Tuesday that Russian strikes on Ukraine’s rail network have damaged or destroyed more than 500 locomotives since the beginning of the war in February 2022. Sybiha said more than half those strikes occurred this year.

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

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 did not offer details.

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. Zelenskyy said 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.”

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

Alaudinov did not provide details on the circumstances of Maj. Gen. Anton Grunis’ death but 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 the Hero of Russia medal. Ukraine has disputed that Kostiantynivka was fully taken by Russian forces.

According to the head of the Kyiv regional military administration, Tymur Tkachenko, 17 other sites were damaged in Ukraine’s Kyiv region between Tuesday and Wednesday morning. 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, acting governor Alexander Shuvayev said one person was killed and four others were injured by Ukrainian strikes over the last 24 hours.