A terrible tragedy occurred on the railway in Odesa Oblast. An enemy drone made a targeted strike on the locomotive of a passenger train as it was approaching a station. This was reported by RBC-Ukraine, citing a post by Oleksandr Peretsovskyi, Chairman of the Board of UZ (Ukrzaliznytsia). The incident occurred during a heightened air raid alert, when the monitoring team detected a threat and ordered a stop.

Heroism of the Locomotive Crew

According to official data, the train was performing a maneuver to safely evacuate passengers. However, due to the high speed of the approaching 'Shahed' type jet drone, the locomotive crew did not have time to fully stop the train and leave the cab. Oleksandr Peretsovskyi, Chairman of the Board of UZ, confirmed in his statement the preliminary information about the death of the driver and the assistant driver.

"Unfortunately, I must report from the first person the most terrible news: according to preliminary information, this strike left our locomotive crew no chance," Peretsovskyi wrote. He emphasized that the railway workers died fulfilling their duty to save people: "We bow our heads before the heroism of our colleagues — they died stopping the train to safely disembark and save their passengers".

Evacuation and Consequences

Despite a direct hit on the locomotive, all passengers were saved. There were 340 people on the train, who, along with the train crew, were led to a safe place. There were no casualties among the passengers. Currently, work is being organized at the scene to transport people to Odesa using buses.

The incident in Odesa Oblast is yet another confirmation that Ukraine's railway infrastructure remains a priority target for Russian strikes. UZ had previously introduced special "safety stops" precisely due to constant shelling of trains by occupiers.

Context of Attacks on Railway Transport

The attack on the passenger train in Odesa Oblast is not an isolated incident. Several similar incidents have been recorded during 2026. For example, on August 8, Russian drones hit the locomotive of a train traveling the Sumy — Kyiv route, but passengers were evacuated in advance. Earlier, on March 14, a Russian drone hit a passenger train on the Smorodino — Vorozhba route in Sumy Oblast, where, thanks to the actions of the monitoring service, casualties were also avoided.

Contradictory Data

Reports about the location of the incident are circulating in open sources and social media. Some users and regional media outlets (for example, Focus.ua) associate such attacks with Mykolaiv Oblast, where strikes on stations and trains have also been recorded. However, the official statement by Oleksandr Peretsovskyi clearly points to Odesa Oblast as the place of the tragedy involving the deceased crew. At the moment, the exact settlement or station in Odesa Oblast where the strike occurred is not named in the primary source, which creates some confusion regarding the geographical details of the incident.