At least five killed in Russian drone strike near Ukraine front line

Ukrainian officials say that a Russian drone strike on a bus near the front line in southern Ukraine has killed at least five people and injured seven others.

The attack on Wednesday hit an area around the city of Nikopol, Dnipropetrovsk region governor Oleksandr Hanzha said on the Telegram messaging app.

Nikopol sits on the opposite bank of the Dnipro river from the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, occupied by Russian troops since the first days of the war.

Photos posted by Ukrainian officials showed windows blown out of a white minibus, with a trail of blood streaming down the side of the vehicle.

“Russians cynically struck a passenger bus. They targeted a minibus which carried people going about their daily business,” said Mykola Lukashuk, head of the Dnipropetrovsk region council.

The number of civilians killed in Ukraine has increased sharply this year , according to the United Nations, amid an escalation in strikes.

At least 1,396 civilians were killed and 7,978 others wounded in Ukraine during the first six months of 2026, according to the UN Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine, a 37 percent increase from the same period in the previous year.

Meanwhile, at least 250 civilians were killed and 1,596 others injured in Ukrainian attacks inside Russia during the first six months of this year, according to the UN mission, quoting credible Russian open-source reporting – a 121 percent increase in civilian casualties in the country compared with the previous year.