Russian drone strike on bus in Ukraine’s Dnipropetrovsk region kills 12 coal miners

The aftermath of a Russian drone strike on a bus in the city of Ternivka, eastern Ukraine, 1 February 2026. Photo: State Emergency Service of Ukraine

A Russian drone strike on a civilian bus carrying energy infrastructure workers in Ukraine’s eastern Dnipropetrovsk region killed 12 people and injured seven more on Sunday, the authorities said.

DTEK, Ukraine’s largest private energy company, said Russia had carried out a “massive terrorist attack on DTEK mines” in Dnipropetrovsk, including by striking the bus in the city of Ternivka as it transported miners returning home after a shift.

In a statement, DTEK CEO Maksym Timchenko called the strike “an unprovoked terrorist attack on a purely civilian facility, for which there can be no justification”.

“This attack was the biggest single loss for DTEK since the start of Russia's full-scale invasion and one of the darkest days in the company's history,” Timchenko said.

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andriy Sybiha said the bus held “no military target — just hardworking men returning to their families after their shifts”, while Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky described the attack as a “telling crime that yet again shows that Russia bears responsibility for the escalation” in the war.

According to Serhiy Beskrestnov, an advisor to Ukraine’s Defence Minister Mykhailo Fedorov, the bus was attacked by two drones, whose operators “100% saw and recognised the target as civilian, saw that they were not military personnel and made a conscious decision to attack”.

Earlier on Sunday, the authorities in the southeastern Zaporizhzhia region said that nine people had been injured in two Russian strikes on the regional capital Zaporizhzhia, one of which targeted a maternity hospital in an attack Zaporizhzhia region Governor Ivan Fedorov called “proof of a war waged against life”.

On Monday, the State Emergency Service of Ukraine said four people had also been injured in a “massive” overnight Russian drone strike on the central city of Cherkasy.

Russia’s attacks took place amid confusion over a US-backed moratorium on strikes on energy facilities. While Zelensky said on Friday that US President Donald Trump had spoken about “refraining from strikes on energy infrastructure for a week”, the Kremlin suggested that it would only halt its attacks until Sunday in order to create “favourable conditions” for the next round of talks between Russian and Ukrainian negotiators in Abu Dhabi.