A RUSSIAN DRONE strike on a railway station in the northeastern Ukrainian region of Sumy has injured at least 30 people.

The Shostka station in Sumy is around 50 kilometres from the Russian border. Moscow’s army has repeatedly targeted Ukraine’s railway infrastructure since its invasion in February 2022.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has described the strike as “savage”.

“So far, we know of at least 30 victims,” he said in a statement on social media, adding that preliminary reports indicate that both passengers and railway staff were wounded.

Zelenskyy posted a video showing a mangled train carriage engulfed in flames with twisted metal and busted windows.

“The Russians could not have been unaware that they were striking civilians. This is terror the world must not ignore,” he continued.

A savage Russian drone strike on the railway station in Shostka, Sumy region. All emergency services are already on the scene and have begun helping people. All information about the injured is being established. So far, we know of at least 30 victims. Preliminary reports… pic.twitter.com/ZZoWfPmpL5

— Volodymyr Zelenskyy / Володимир Зеленський (@ZelenskyyUa) October 4, 2025

“Every day Russia takes people’s lives. And only strength can make them stop.”

The Ukrainian leader said they had heard resolute statements from Europe and America “and it’s high time to turn them all into reality, together with everyone who refuses to accept murder and terror as normal”.

Lip service is not enough now. Strong action is needed.

A separate wave of overnight strikes by Russia’s army cut off power to some 50,000 households in the northern Chernigiv region.

Ukraine’s army has also claimed to have struck a major oil refinery in Russia’s northwestern Leningrad region.

Kyiv has vowed to increase its own long-range drone attacks on Russian energy sites, in what it calls fair retribution for Russia’s daily attacks on its cities and power grid.

French journalist killed

Yesterday, a drone killed a French photojournalist on assignment in eastern Ukraine on Friday and wounded a Ukrainian reporter. 

Antoni Lallican, 37, was embedded with Ukraine’s Fourth Armoured Brigade near the area of Druzhkivka, around 20 kilometres from the front line in the Donetsk region when he was killed in a drone attack on the area, Ukrainian authorities said. 

Ukrainian journalist Georgiy Ivanchenko was wounded in the same attack, which Ukraine’s military and French President Emmanuel Macron blamed on Russia.

Lallican, an award-winning photojournalist whose work had appeared in leading French and international media, is the first journalist to be killed by a drone in the Ukraine war, said the European and International Federations of Journalists.

At least 17 journalists have now been killed in Ukraine since Russia launched its full-scale invasion in February 2022, according to the groups. UNESCO puts the number killed at 22.

Macron voiced his “deep sadness” at Lallican’s death, which comes at a moment of surging tension between Russia and Ukraine’s European allies.

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Наш співвітчизник, фотожурналіст Антоні Лаллікан, супроводжував українських військових на фронті опору.

З глибоким сумом я дізнався про його загибель від удару російських дронів.

Я висловлюю щирі співчуття його родині, близьким та усім його колегам, які,…

— Emmanuel Macron (@EmmanuelMacron) October 3, 2025

“Both journalists were wearing personal protective equipment, and their bulletproof vests had identification marks with the word ‘PRESS’ on them,” the Fourth Armoured Brigade said on Facebook.

It said Ivanchenko’s condition was stable.

Free-press watchdog Reporters Without Borders (RSF) called for a swift investigation.

Lallican “died while doing his job, bearing witness to the consequences of war”, said its director general, Thibaut Bruttin.

The European and International Federations of Journalists condemned what they termed a “war crime”.

With reporting from © AFP 2025 

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