Russian drones hit bus, train in Ukraine, killing 5: officials

Russian drones struck a passenger bus and a train in southern Ukraine on Wednesday, killing five people, Ukrainian officials said, as Moscow pressed on with strikes on transport links and infrastructure. Russian President Vladimir Putin framed participation in an upcoming parliamentary election as a barometer of support for Russia's war in Ukraine and urged Russians to vote.

Zelenskyy urges toughening sanctions as Putin frames election as barometer of support for war

Thomson Reuters

· Posted: Sep 16, 2026 1:17 PM EDT | Last Updated: 15 minutes ago

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Russian drones struck a passenger bus and a train in southern Ukraine on Wednesday, killing five people, Ukrainian officials said, as Moscow pressed on with strikes on transport links and infrastructure.

A photo posted on Telegram by a regional governor showed a white vehicle with blown-out windows and a line of what appeared to be blood streaming down its side. Reuters has not verified the image.

"There is no military logic to this, just another act of brutality," Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on social media, urging the U.S. and Europe to press ahead with toughening sanctions against Russia.

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Moscow and Ukraine have traded escalating strikes in recent months on logistics and other economic targets, aimed at hampering each other's war effort and damaging morale.

With Ukraine's airspace closed since Russia's full-scale invasion in 2022, buses and trains have become a vital transport link for ordinary Ukrainians and businesses.

The drone attack on the passenger bus near the frontline city of Nikopol killed four men and a woman early on Wednesday, police said.

A further seven people were injured in the attack, said the governor of the surrounding Dnipropetrovsk region, Oleksandr Hanzha, who posted the photo.

There was no immediate comment from Russia on the attack. Both Ukraine and Russia deny deliberately targeting civilians in the war, triggered by Moscow's full-scale invasion of its neighbour.

Attack on passenger train

A Russian drone also attacked a passenger train in Ukraine's southern Mykolaiv region, the acting regional governor said.

All 168 passengers and crew were evacuated and no one was injured, Heorhii Reshetilov said on Telegram. The train was attacked twice more after the first strike, he said.

Zelenskyy said that, in addition to the Mykolaiv train attack, a locomotive in Kovel — near the border with Poland — was also struck.

The incidents follow similar attacks recently, including on a train near Ukraine's border with NATO-member Poland on Sunday, shortly after European diplomats and political figures had used the same line.

Russia has intensified its attacks on Ukrainian railways, hitting 120 passenger wagons, 304 locomotives and 43 railway stations so far this year, the state rail operator told Reuters.

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The company said that Russia has attacked 1,700 railway facilities in total since the start of the year, up from 1,206 facilities in 2025 and 842 in 2024.

"Russian forces strike passenger trains, locomotives, stations, and railway routes knowing exactly how essential they are for civilians, evacuations, and Ukraine's economy," Ukraine's Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha said on X.

"This is not collateral damage. It is a systematic hunt for people and an attempt to paralyze civilian life," he said.

Upcoming election barometer of support for war: Putin

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday framed participation in an upcoming parliamentary election as a barometer of support for Russia's war in Ukraine and urged Russians to vote.

Russia holds a three-day parliamentary election starting on Friday to choose the composition of its 450-seat lower house of parliament, the State Duma, which has a track record of faithfully approving the Kremlin's initiatives.

It is the first parliamentary election since Russia launched its full-scale war in Ukraine in February 2022 and comes at a time when opinion polls show some Russians have become more anxious about how the conflict affects them, as the economy is under strain, and as most anti-war candidates have been excluded from the ballot.

The political system is tightly controlled and the ruling United Russia party, backed by Putin, is widely expected to retain its dominance.

In a televised address to the nation ahead of the vote, Putin referred to the war in Ukraine and to Russian-controlled parts of Ukraine, saying that casting a vote would help secure Russia's victory and demonstrate national resolve in the face of external pressure.

"Your choice and your will will once again demonstrate that millions of people stand behind our soldiers, that we are a united people bound together by shared values, historical memory, and love for our homeland, and that no one will succeed in dividing or intimidating us, or in undermining our statehood and our socio-political system," Putin said.

He said the vote would serve as a collective response to those seeking to weaken Russia, hinder its development, and deprive it of its sovereignty and right to determine its own future.