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A Russian drone attack hit a bus carrying miners in Ukraine’s Dnipropetrovsk region on Sunday, killing at least 12 people.
Ukrainian emergency services later reported that the death toll had risen to 15 in one of the deadliest attacks on energy workers since the start of the war.
Sunday’s attack came just hours after President Volodymyr Zelenskyy announced that a new round of peace talks between Ukraine and Russia had been postponed.
A spokesperson for DTEK, Ukraine’s largest private energy company, which employed the workers, told Fox News Digital that drones had targeted the bus as it traveled “approximately 40 miles from the front line in central and eastern Ukraine.”
The DTEK spokesperson also described the incident as a “terrorist attack against civilian infrastructure.”
“This attack was a terrorist attack targeting civilians and another crime by Russia against critical infrastructure,” the spokesperson added.
RUSSIA UNLEASHES MAJOR DRONE AND MISSILE ATTACK AGAINST UKRAINE AS DIPLOMATIC TALKS CONTINUE WITH THE UNITED STATES
The Russian drone strike killed at least 12 Ukrainian coal miners and injured seven others when it hit a civilian bus in the Dnipropetrovsk region. (State Emergency Service of Ukraine, Dnipropetrovsk region)
The bus carrying the miners at the end of their shift was hit by a Russian drone, the State Emergency Service of Ukraine also confirmed.
At least seven workers were injured and emergency crews later extinguished the fire caused by the impact.
“The epicenter of one of the attacks was a company bus transporting miners from the company after a shift in the Dnipropetrovsk region,” the company also said in a statement.
Zelenskyy condemned Sunday night’s attack, calling it another deliberate attack on civilians.
RUSSIA SAYS PEACE TALKS WITH UKRAINE ‘PROCEEDING CONSTRUCTIVELY’ AS KREMLIN LAUNCHES DEADLY ATTACK IN ODESSA
The Russian drone strike killed at least 12 Ukrainian coal miners and injured seven others when it hit a civilian bus in the Dnipropetrovsk region. (State Emergency Service of Ukraine, Dnipropetrovsk region)
Earlier in the day, he announced that the next round of trilateral talks between Ukraine, Russia and the United States would take place on February 4-5 in Abu Dhabi, after originally expected to take place on Sunday.
“Ukraine is ready for a substantive discussion and we are interested in ensuring that the outcome brings us closer to a real and dignified end to the war,” Zelenskyy said on X, adding that all sides had agreed to the delay.
The delay followed a surprise meeting Saturday in Florida between Steve Witkoff, President Donald Trump’s special envoy, and Kirill Dmitriev, the Kremlin’s special envoy and head of Russia’s sovereign wealth fund.
The talks in Abu Dhabi are now expected to include representatives from Ukraine, Russia and the United States, according to the Associated Press.
UKRAINE RUNS TO REINFORCE AIR DEFENSES AS PUTIN STRIKE PAUSE NEARS END
Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy met separately with President Donald Trump. Even though a peace deal is close, territorial disputes persist, Zelenskyy said. (Julia Demaree Nikhinson/AP; Christian Bruna/Getty)
Meanwhile, Zelenskyy warned that Russia is intensifying its air campaign against civilian and logistical targets.
“Over the past week, Russia used more than 980 attack drones, nearly 1,100 guided aerial bombs and two missiles against Ukraine,” he wrote in X on Sunday. “We are recording Russian attempts to destroy logistics and connectivity between cities and communities.”
In a statement, DTEK CEO Maxim Timchenko also explained that the attack on the bus marked the company’s “biggest loss.” [of] life of DTEK employees since the full-scale invasion of Russia.”
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“We can now say with certainty that this was an unprovoked terrorist attack against a purely civilian target, for which there can be no justification,” Timchenko said.
The attack marked “one of the darkest days in our history,” he added. “DTEK teams are working with emergency services on the ground in the Dnipropetrovsk region to ensure that the injured and families who have lost loved ones receive all the care and support they need. Their sacrifice will never be forgotten,” he added.