Tragedy Strikes Ukraine Train: Eyewitness Account of Drone Attack

Sat Jan 31 2026 13:50:44 GMT+0200 (Eastern European Standard Time)

A harrowing incident sheds light on the deadly Russian drone strike that hit a crowded train in Ukraine, killing five and leaving survivors terrified.

An eyewitness, identified as Omar, a soldier with Ukraine's 93rd brigade, recounted the chaos aboard a passenger train that fell victim to a Russian drone strike. Panic spread among passengers as explosions shattered their calm, prompting a desperate escape that saved lives. This incident highlights the ongoing dangers faced by civilians in Ukraine amidst the continued conflict.

A Ukrainian soldier has described the moment a passenger train was targeted by Russian drones, killing five people.

When a carriage on the train was hit in northeastern Ukraine, passengers threw themselves on the floor in panic, and the military officer told them to get out immediately. Without his instruction, issued moments before the carriage burst into flames, many more passengers could have died.

The officer, whose army call-sign is Omar, is part of Ukraine's 93rd brigade. He was among the passengers traveling on a route from Chop, on the border with Slovakia, to Barvinkove, the last stop before the front line in eastern Ukraine.

The first of three Russian drones landed near the train, forcing it to come to a halt. 'Then we heard the rumble of another drone, and then an explosion,' Omar tells the BBC. 'The blast was so strong that parts of the carriage shattered into splinters.'

As the commander of a drone unit, he quickly realized he and the other passengers had to get out as the train could get hit again. In total, 291 people were on the train at the time, officials say.

'After the second hit, I understood that the drone operator was observing what kind of target it was hitting,' Omar says, highlighting the vulnerability of their situation.

The carriage that suffered a direct hit quickly became engulfed in flames. 'I am in the military and I am prepared for such attacks,' he recalls. 'But for others, it was a shock to be so close to death.'

Many passengers evacuated the train in a state of deep distress, and videos from the scene show people screaming and crying as they moved away from the smoldering wreck. It was too dangerous for such a large number of people to stay near the burning carriages, so he urged them to start moving towards a nearby motorway.

Omar then went back to the train with some of the other passengers to check if anyone had been left behind. He found a body inside and continued to look for survivors. In the final carriage, he discovered a young woman with a baby. 'She was very scared and had no idea what to do, but thank God she was alive,' he says.

As she got off the train, she pleaded for help to retrieve her suitcase and documents, revealing she was traveling to visit her soldier husband at the front line.

This attack on the passenger train in Kharkiv region was condemned by President Volodymyr Zelensky as an act of terrorism, emphasizing the attack's targeting of a central part of Ukraine's railway system, which is critical for civilian travel amidst the ongoing conflict.

Hours after the attack, services were resumed on the Barvinkove-Chop line, yet the emotional toll on the passengers and the broader implications for safety in Ukraine's railways remain significant.