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Two Russian unmanned aerial vehicles hit railway cars at a station in Ukraine’s northern Sumy region, killing one person and leaving roughly 30 injured, officials said on the weekend.

“A brutal Russian drone strike on the railway station in Shostka, Sumy region,” wrote the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, on social media, publishing a footage of a wrecked, burning passenger carriage and others with their windows blown out.

Accusations of Deliberate Targeting

Ukraine’s foreign minister, Sybiha, alleged Russian forces of intentionally conducting a double strike on civilian trains.

“Among the most ruthless strategies employed by Russia,” he said in a announcement issued by his ministry.

The Sumy region’s governor, Oleh Hryhorov, reported that eight individuals had been transported to medical facilities.

Civilian Impact

“The Russians must have known that they were targeting civilians. This is terrorism, which the world has no right to ignore,” Zelenskyy emphasized.

Russia has intensified its airstrikes on Ukraine's rail network, hitting it almost every day over the past couple of months.

The Russian government has consistently refuted targeting civilians in its war in Ukraine, although numerous individuals have been lost their lives by its armed forces.

Head of Railways Details Attack

In a recorded discussion from a train traveling to the location of the attack, the chief executive of Ukraine’s state rail company Oleksandr Pertsovskyi informed the media that the unmanned aircraft had aimed at locomotives, but had also harmed the connected passenger cars.

“In essence, they are hunting for locomotives,” he remarked, noting that Russia was more frequently using this method.

He said the affected trains had been a regional passenger train and another train traveling toward the capital, Kiev.

Attempt to Create Fear

The rail boss said there was only civilian traffic at the station. He said he was convinced this was a deliberate effort to make areas like Shostka, about 50km from the border with Russia, dangerous for passenger traffic.

“They are taking all measures to make frontline and border areas uninhabitable, so that people are afraid to travel there, afraid to board trains, afraid to gather at markets, and so that young people are afraid to return home.”