Three people were killed and a dozen more were wounded in Ukraine’s central region of Dnipropetrovsk on Tuesday after a Russian drone targeted a bus stop in the frontline city of Nikopol.
Dnipropetrovsk’s regional military administration head, Oleksandr Hanzha, denounced the attacks in a post on his official Telegram channel.
The drone targeted a moving bus as it was pulling into the stop to pick up additional passengers, Hanzha said.
“Three people were killed and another 12 injured. The enemy attacked a city bus with an FPV drone right in downtown Nikopol. It was pulling up to the stop -- there were people both on board and at the stop,” he wrote.
"This was not a random strike. It was deliberate terror against civilians – against people who were simply going about their daily lives," added Hanzha.
It’s the latest in a series of increasing daytime attacks launched by Moscow, targeting everything from civilian areas to energy and other critical infrastructure.
Last week, a barrage of almost 500 missiles and drones targeted the Kyiv region, killing one person.
Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha slammed the attacks, accusing the Kremlin of deliberately targeting civilians.
The attacks came after Moscow ignored a Ukrainian Easter holiday ceasefire proposal, claiming they never received such a request.
Nikopol and nearby settlements are regularly targeted by Russian attacks due to their proximity to Russian positions.
The city with some 105,000 residents prior to Russia's full-scale invasion in early 2022 is situated across the Dnipro River from the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power plant, which has been occupied by Moscow forces since the early days of its all-out war.
This positioning makes it an easy target for Russian strikes, as Ukrainian forces often cannot shoot down the incoming attacks because of a very short window for interception or strike back due to the danger of hitting Europe’s largest nuclear power plant.
