Kyiv commuter town becomes scene of horror as Russian attack kills 8 on train station platform
Aftermath of the Russian attack on the railway station in Kyiv Oblast, Ukraine, on Aug. 5, 2026. (Olena Zashko / The Kyiv Independent)
on GoogleBROVARY, KYIV OBLAST — Eight people were killed as they stood waiting for a delayed train overnight on Aug. 5 during one of the most intense Russian bombardments of the town of Brovary, just east of Kyiv, of the entire war.
The morning light exposed a scene of horror — bodies still lay beside the town's small railway platform, with some human remains scattered across the ground. Railway workers, meanwhile, had already begun repairing the damaged tracks only meters away. The air was heavy with the smell of death.
The strike landed in a line of trees immediately behind the station, with the blast tearing across the platform where passengers had been waiting for a delayed train.
Those living in the Brovary district had been under sporadic attack from Russian jet-powered drones since the early evening. As the night wore on, not only did this intensify, but a barrage of ballistic missiles that also struck the capital and surrounding oblast, ripping the night apart.
"That was the most terrifying night of my life," 48-year-old Anastasia told the Kyiv Independent, as she described how her house was hit by a drone and then rocked by blast wave after blast wave from missiles targeting warehouses nearby in an ordeal that lasted almost 12 hours.
"You know who they say 'You’ll never hear the missile that’s meant for you'? This was exactly the case," she said.
A jet-powered drone tore into her house, where her mother and her deaf and blind grandmother were staying at the time, completely destroying the upper two floors.
Miraculously, none of them were injured, and with the help of neighbors and the emergency services, they escaped from the burning building. But the ordeal was far from over.
Shortly after midnight, Russia launched 24 ballistic and four hypersonic missiles at Kyiv and the surrounding oblast, many of them targeting warehouses in Brovary.
Anastasia's house was next to one of them.
"Everything kept exploding. They were finishing off that warehouse for several hours," she said. "It was unbelievably frightening."
Anastasia said the blast wave from one ballistic missile was so strong that "even my socks flew off."
"I’d always wondered why, when people survive explosions, their shoes fly off. Well, that’s exactly what happened," she added.
At least 17 people were killed and dozens more injured in Ukraine's capital and Kyiv Oblast, in an attack that President Volodymyr Zelensky said targeted "warehouses of civilian enterprises."
Iryna Chechotkina, chief executive of online shopping company Rozetka, said a distribution warehouse in Brovary was totally destroyed during the attack.
"I watched as my life's work burned down after three ballistic missiles hit."
"Today I was supposed to post about Rozetka turning 21 — to thank our customers, partners, and team for this long journey we have traveled together," she wrote in a post on Facebook.
"Instead, at night I watched as my life's work burned down after three ballistic missiles hit."
But the highest human toll was on the platform of the train station at Kvitneve on the northeastern outskirts of Brovary where eight people were killed.
"Exactly when it happened at the railway stop, I don’t know," 44-year-old kindergarten teacher Oksana Zhyrnyak told the Kyiv Independent.
"People always go to work in the morning and return from work in the evening along this street. And the last commuter train, the one they were waiting for, was delayed," she added.
Zhyrnyak was at home with her children when the attack began, which came with no warning.
"There was no alert. They didn’t issue an alert. And then three explosions, one after another," she said.
"I ran up to my child and lay directly on top of him."
"We could see the glow from the bedroom. And I ran up to my child and lay directly on top of him."
The attack overnight was the latest in a recent series launched by Russia that have seen an increasing use of ballistic missiles as they exploit Ukraine's chronic shortage of air defense missiles capable of shooting them down.
"Ballistics interceptors are something that could have saved the lives of those who died today," Zelensky said in a post on social media.
"It's hard for us, especially for those who have children," Zhyrnyak said.
Asked if she had a message for the rest of the world, she said: "Just don’t forget us. Help us.
"Because we can’t manage on our own."
