Footage filmed in Ukraine’s Odesa region on Thursday 13 August 2026 by the national emergency services shows a severely damaged passenger train locomotive, as firefighters extinguish the flames. A nearby carriage has shattered windows, while passengers board evacuation buses with their luggage.
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A Russian jet-powered Shahed drone struck the locomotive of the Odesa-Dnipro passenger train in the Berezivka district on Thursday morning, killing the driver and his assistant, Ukrzaliznytsia chairman Oleksandr Pertsovskyi said. A monitoring team had detected the drone and ordered the train to stop near a station, but the drone's sudden manoeuvre left the crew too little time to evacuate after stopping the train. All 340 passengers were evacuated safely and taken to Odesa by 21 buses.
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said the operator could not have been unaware the train carried civilians and renewed calls for stronger air defences. Russia launched 133 drones at Ukraine overnight, with 111 intercepted, the air force said, as strikes also wounded six people elsewhere in the country.
