A Russian drone strike on a bus carrying workers in the Ukrainian city of Marhanets killed nine people and injured 49, Ukrainian officials said Wednesday, prompting President Volodymyr Zelenskiy to condemn the attack as a “deliberate war crime”.
The drone hit a bus transporting workers from a mining and processing plant in Marhanets, located on the north bank of the Dnipro River, still under Ukrainian control.
“It was an egregiously brutal attack – and an absolutely deliberate war crime,” Zelenskiy said on X, formerly Twitter.
He described the bus as a “clearly civilian object” and renewed his call for an “immediate, full, and unconditional ceasefire.”
Photographs shared by Zelenskiy showed bodies near and inside the wrecked vehicle, with emergency personnel at the scene. Most of the injured were women, according to the president.
Dnipropetrovsk regional governor Serhiy Lysak confirmed the casualty figures, reporting that 49 people were injured in addition to the nine killed.
The Marhanets strike was part of a wider overnight assault in which Russia launched 134 attack drones on Ukrainian targets, Kyiv’s air force said. There was no immediate response from Moscow.
Elsewhere, artillery and drone fire destroyed a power plant serving Kherson, near the southern front lines. Regional governor Oleksandr Prokudin confirmed the attack.
In the Synelnykivskyi district of Dnipropetrovsk, two people were injured and a fire broke out at an agricultural facility following another drone strike, emergency services reported.
Six people were also hurt in central Poltava after drones struck the region, while two more were injured in Odesa’s suburbs in attacks that caused multiple fires, regional governor Oleh Kiper said.
Further damage was reported in Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city, where drone strikes triggered large-scale fires.
In the Kyiv capital region, several buildings and a restaurant complex were damaged, with seven private houses also affected.
Amid the escalating violence, Ukrainian officials had arrived in London on Wednesday, hoping for ceasefire discussions. However, after several major foreign ministers pulled out, the talks were postponed.
Both Ukraine and Russia face mounting pressure from the United States to move towards peace, amid concerns over future U.S. support if former President Donald Trump returns to office.
