PHOTO/VIDEO Passenger train, with more than 200 people in it, on fire after a Russian drone bombing in Kharkiv. The balance of victims
A train carriage on fire following an air attack, in the Kharkiv region, on January 27, 2026. PHOTO: Handout / AFP / Profimedia
A Russian drone bombing of a passenger train in northeastern Ukraine killed five people, according to Ukrainian prosecutors, with the attack condemned as an act of terrorism by President Volodymyr Zelensky, Reuters reports.
Prosecutors said fragments from five bodies were found at the scene of the attack on the train, near a village in the Kharkiv region of northeastern Ukraine.
The passenger train was traveling from Chop, a town near Ukraine's western border with Hungary and Slovakia, to the town of Barvinkove.
Photos and video footage posted online show at least two cars on fire next to a snow-covered railway.
Russia's human safari has reached a new level.
Today, Russian terrorists deliberately struck a passenger train in the Kharkiv region with a guided jet-powered Shahed drone.
This is not “war.”
This is a deliberate hunt for civilians.
There is nothing human left in them. pic.twitter.com/sp7ozAhZ82— UAVoyager🇺🇦 (@NAFOvoyager) January 27, 2026
“In any country, a drone attack on a civilian train would be considered exactly the same way – simply as terrorism. There is and cannot be any military purpose in such a thing,” Zelenskiy wrote in a message shared online, also posting a video of the burning train.
“Our cause – and this should unite all normal people in the world – is to ensure progress in the protection of life. This is possible through pressure on Russia,” added the leader from Kiev.
Ukrainian prosecutors say one drone struck the train and two others struck an area near it. Specifically, according to the prosecutor's office of the Kharkiv region, Russian forces launched three Geran-2 Shahed drones at the train, one of which hit the vehicle, and the other two hit the area near the train.
In his message, Zelenskiy said that four people were killed. The train, the Ukrainian president added, was carrying more than 200 passengers, 18 of whom were in the carriage that was hit. Prosecutors initially reported that there were 155 passengers on the train.
Deputy Prime Minister Oleksii Kuleba described the three-drone attack as a “direct act of Russian terrorism”.
“The attacks hit the front of the locomotive and a passenger car, causing a fire,” said Oleksii Kuleba. “The passengers were evacuated as quickly as possible,” he said.
Oleksandr Pertsovskyi, the general manager of Ukrzaliznitsia, Ukraine's national railway company, thanked rescue teams and passengers who helped evacuate people and promised that trains would continue to run.
“Maintaining traffic is becoming more and more difficult,” Pertsovskyi wrote in a message posted on Facebook. “We are regrouping. Additional strict security measures will be taken in some places, but even in these frightening days, we cannot give up,” he added.
At least three civilians were killed after Russian Shahed drones struck a passenger train in the Kharkiv region. More than 155 passengers were on board. Witnesses reported people leaping from the burning train carrying children in their arms.
Rescue efforts are ongoing. pic.twitter.com/JewwbYcX3G
— KyivPost (@KyivPost) January 27, 2026
Other Ukrainian officials, quoted by The Kyiv Independent, previously reported that at least four people were killed and two others wounded in the attack.
According to Ukrzaliznitsia and regional officials, the train was carrying 291 passengers at the time of the attack.
In the Kharkiv region, the Russian army attacked a passenger train with 3 drones.
There were 291 people inside. The drone operators clearly saw that it was a civilian train but attacked it. At least 3 people were killed.
This is terrorism. pic.twitter.com/IsrKyoX4Fr
— Denis Kazansky (@den_kazansky) January 27, 2026
Oleg Sinegubov, head of the Kharkiv regional administration, confirmed that the attack took place in the Barvinkove community.
Emergency services, including medics, firefighters and rail crews, attended the scene. The authorities said backup buses were sent to transport the rest of the passengers, as well as people waiting to take the train in the opposite direction.
