Kathrine Frich
The war in Ukraine has once again undercut hopes of restraint.
A deadly attack struck civilians travelling home from work.
The incident comes amid confusion over whether Moscow had agreed to temporarily halt strikes.
Ukrainian officials say the timing raises fresh questions about Russia’s intentions and the credibility of recent diplomatic statements.
Deadly bus strike
A Russian drone strike hit a bus in Ukraine’s Dnipropetrovsk region, killing at least 12 people, local authorities said.
Ukrainian emergency services reported that a fire broke out after the impact but was later extinguished by firefighters.
Regional governor Oleksandr Hanzha said seven more people were injured in the attack.
Energy company DTEK stated that those killed and wounded were its employees, travelling home after completing their shift at a nearby facility.
The company said the strike was part of a wider Russian assault on one of its mines in the area.
Official condemnation
Ukraine’s energy minister Denys Shmyhal described the incident as deliberate. “Today, the enemy carried out a cynical and targeted attack on energy sector workers in the Dnipropetrovsk region,” he said.
President Volodymyr Zelensky also condemned the strike, calling it a crime.
“Today’s Russian strike on a bus in the Dnipropetrovsk region is a crime, a demonstrative crime, which once again shows that it is Russia that is responsible for the escalation. Evil must be stopped,” he wrote on Telegram.
Ceasefire confusion
The attack occurred days after US President Donald Trump said he had asked Russian President Vladimir Putin to pause strikes on Ukrainian cities for a week. Trump said Putin had agreed to the request.
“I personally asked President Putin not to fire on Kyiv and the cities and towns for a week,” Trump said during a cabinet meeting.
“And he agreed to do that. And I have to tell you, it was very nice.”
However, the Kremlin later appeared to narrow the scope of that claim.
Conflicting messages
Kremlin spokesperson Dmitri Peskov said on January 30 that Trump had asked Russia to refrain only from attacking Kyiv until February 1, “in order to create favorable conditions for negotiations.”
The differing accounts have fuelled uncertainty over whether any broader pause was ever intended.
Ukrainian officials have repeatedly warned that Russian statements about restraint often do not match actions on the ground.
Sources: Ukrainian authorities, Daily Express.
