In a post on social media late on Tuesday, Zelensky wrote: “In any country, a drone strike on a civilian train would be considered in exactly the same way – purely as terrorism”.
He said there was no “military justification” in targeting civilians, adding that there were 18 people in the carriage that was hit.
Pictures and footage released by Ukraine’s emergency services show at least one badly destroyed carriage still burning after the attack.
Kharkiv’s regional prosecutor’s office said the train was struck near the Yazykove village. One drone hit a carriage directly, and another two exploded near the train.
The office said the train was heading from the western border town of Chop to Barvinkove in the Kharkiv region via the regional capital Kharkiv.
This line runs further east to the Donetsk region, and is used by local residents as well as Ukrainian soldiers travelling to and from leave.
