Russian drone hits Sumy-Kyiv train, passengers evacuated on time
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A Russian drone struck a passenger train traveling in Sumy Oblast from Sumy to Kyiv on Aug. 8, state-owned Ukrainian Railways (Ukrzaliznytsia) said.
The drone hit the locomotive but a timely evacuation helped prevent casualties, the railway company said.
The latest attack comes as Russia increasingly targets Ukrainian trains in front-line regions, such as Sumy, Zaporizhzhia, Dnipropetrovsk, and Kharkiv oblasts. The intensified attacks have forced Ukrzaliznytsia to implement tight security protocols, which have helped prevent passenger casualties.
The attack occurred at around 8 a.m. local time, according to the local branch of public broadcaster Suspilne. It added, citing the police, that a fire had erupted following the attack.
Ukrzaliznytsia said the monitoring team detected the threat on time, allowing the train and locomotive crews to evacuate the passengers to a safe distance. It reported that one of the railcars had sustained damage.
Despite the heightened threat from drone strikes, particularly in front-line regions, Ukrainian Railways remains one of the key transport routes for civilians and soldiers traveling in and out of such areas.
Earlier this week, a Russian drone struck the Lozova railway station in Kharkiv Oblast on the morning of Aug. 6, killing two people and injuring eight others, regional authorities and Ukrainian Railways reported. A train carriage was struck at the station, and the two men killed were railway workers, Ukrainian Railways CEO Oleksandr Pertsovskyi confirmed.
In 2025, Russia has attacked Ukraine's railway infrastructure nearly 1,200 times, more than in 2024 and 2023 combined, Oleh Yakovenko, a top executive at Ukrainian Railways (Ukrzaliznytsia), said in April.
