Russian Strike on Station Kills 14 as Local Truce Holds
A limited ceasefire around Russian-occupied Oleshky entered its third day while strikes elsewhere in Ukraine left 56 people injured.
By Mateo Thompson ·
A jet-powered Russian drone struck two passenger trains stopped at a station in Dnipro on Thursday, killing at least 14 people and injuring 14 more. One of the injured, a 40-year-old man, had his legs amputated, officials said. A Russian cruise missile killed two 15-year-old girls in Chernihiv, and a drone strike on an apartment block in Kremenchuk killed three civilians. Ukrainian authorities put the total injured across the day's strikes at 56, including 10 children.
The strikes continued as a localized ceasefire held for a third day in and around the southern Ukrainian city of Oleshky, which lies in Russian-occupied territory. Moscow and Kyiv have observed the limited truce since Tuesday. The White House said Melania Trump helped broker the arrangement to allow food and medical supplies to reach some 2,000 people in Oleshky, and Pope Leo XIV also pressed for a pause in fighting. Ukraine's Dmytro Lubinets and Russia's Yana Lantratova each reported no violations of the agreement.
Aid deliveries were scheduled to begin Friday, with Russian engineers working to clear mines from roads in Oleshky. Lantratova said she was traveling to the city for the delivery and that the operation was five months in the making. Residents may evacuate to Russia or Ukraine according to their wishes, though officials have not explained how that process would work. Ksenia Arkhipova, a volunteer from Oleshky, told the Associated Press that about 1,000 residents have told her they want to leave. She said many fear Russian authorities will identify people with pro-Ukrainian views or ties to Ukraine's military, and that a Ukrainian delegation's presence in the city matters for that reason.
The truce has not extended to the wider war. Russia's Defense Ministry said air defenses downed 1,214 Ukrainian drones overnight in what it described as one of the largest such attacks launched by Kyiv. Around half were headed toward Moscow, Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said.
In Kherson, held by Ukraine and near Oleshky, Nataliia Myronenko, 42, said her coffee kiosk drew customers at lunchtime and in the evening, hours when business had dropped during attacks. "For a while, people would race down this street because they were afraid to stop," she said. Ukrainian and Russian representatives met Thursday in Homel, Belarus, and flew together to the Kherson region, Belarus state media reported.
