A Russian drone strike has killed at least 15 Ukrainian miners after hitting a bus transporting workers in the Dnipropetrovsk region, Ukrainian emergency services confirmed on Sunday.
The bus was carrying employees of DTEK, Ukraine’s largest private energy company, after the end of their shift when it was struck. Initial reports put the death toll at 12, but authorities later confirmed more fatalities, making it one of the deadliest single attacks on energy workers since the war began.
According to Ukraine’s State Emergency Service, the attack also left at least seven people injured. A fire broke out following the impact but was later extinguished by emergency crews.
A spokesperson for DTEK said the drone targeted the bus as it travelled roughly 40 miles from the front line in central and eastern Ukraine. The company described the incident as a “targeted terrorist attack against civilians” and an assault on critical infrastructure personnel.
“The epicenter of one of the attacks was a company bus transporting miners from the enterprise after a shift in the Dnipropetrovsk region,” the company said in a statement.
The strike occurred just hours after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy announced that a new round of peace talks between Ukraine and Russia had been postponed.
Zelenskyy later condemned the attack, calling it another deliberate strike on civilians amid ongoing hostilities.
The Dnipropetrovsk region, while not on the immediate front line, has frequently come under long-range missile and drone attacks targeting energy facilities and logistics routes.
