EC President Costa expresses condolences to Ukraine over Russian attacks on Dnipro, Chernihiv, and Kremenchuk

On Thursday, Russian drone strikes killed 14 people at a crowded rail platform in Dnipro, Ukraine, and five others in separate attacks on two other cities, Ukrainian officials reported. Two teenage girls were among the fatalities in Chernihiv, and three people died in strikes on residential buildings in Kremenchuk. Ukrainian Prime Minister Sergiy Koretskyi decried the strikes as "deliberate targeting of civilians" and called them "a terror" with no justification.

The six-day truce, brokered with US assistance, was limited to southern Ukraine's Kherson region, where a humanitarian mission was ongoing to aid the Russian-held town of Oleshky. However, Russian drone and missile strikes on key infrastructure, including the rail network, disrupted civilian life and inflicted significant economic damage due to a shortage of air defense missiles.

In Dnipro, the main railway station's platform was hit by a jet-powered drone, with bodies scattered across the debris-strewn pavement. Svitlana Shcherbak, a 67-year-old traveler, expressed her shock and bewilderment at the senseless violence. Meanwhile, Moscow denied targeting non-military locations despite the escalating civilian casualty toll.

Elsewhere, a drone attack in Chernihiv killed two teenagers and wounded 23 others, including four children, on a bustling downtown street. In Kremenchuk, three people were killed and 32 injured in strikes targeting residential buildings. Russian drones also struck city buses in Zaporizhzhia, injuring six passengers. These attacks occurred amid renewed efforts to restart US-backed peace negotiations aimed at ending the conflict in Europe's deadliest since World War Two.