Russian attack on a civilian train: Putin is a terrorist and deserves to be treated as such

This Tuesday, Vladimir Putin's dictatorship acted once again as what it is: a terrorist regime that systematically attacks civilians.

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In the Kharkiv region of northeastern Ukraine, a passenger train carrying 291 civilians was attacked by the Russians. Five deaths have been confirmed so far, although given the state of the train, more bodies may be found. The train was traveling the Barhinkove-Lviv-Chop route when three HESA Shahed 136 drones struck it. These are Iranian drones used by Russia and known in that country as Geran-2.

Today, Russia struck a passenger train in the Kharkiv region with attack drones. In any country, a drone strike on a civilian train would be regarded in the same way – purely as an act of terrorism. There would be no doubt about the classification, neither in Europe, nor in… pic.twitter.com/J7UqQV70QG

— Volodymyr Zelenskyy / Володимир Зеленський (@ZelenskyyUa) January 27, 2026

The President of Ukraine has declared: "In any country, a drone strike on a civilian train would be regarded in the same way – purely as an act of terrorism. There would be no doubt about the classification, neither in Europe, nor in America, nor in the Arab world, nor in China, nor anywhere else. There is, and can be, no military justification for killing civilians in a train carriage. In particular, over 200 people were on the train, and 18 were in the carriage hit by one of the Russian drones."

Volodymyr Zelensky added: "Russia must be held accountable for what it is doing. And this means responsibility not only for strikes against our people, against our life, but for the very ability to carry out such attacks. The Russians have significantly increased their capacity to kill, their capacity to terrorize. They are investing in the progress of terror. And our task – and this should unite all decent people around the world – is to ensure progress in the protection of life. This is possible through pressure on Russia. This is possible by punishing Russia for its actions. This is possible through support for Ukraine. I thank everyone who does not remain silent when they see what Russian terrorists are doing."

The words of the President of Ukraine perfectly express the kind of government that has ruled the country, which has been murdering Ukrainian civilians for four years. Russia is run by a terrorist regime, a regime headed by a terrorist named Vladimir Putin. No democratic country should have diplomatic relations with such a regime, much less try to convince us that Putin wants peace, as Trump said a year ago, a claim he has developed into an erratic policy toward Russia that has only served to appease that terrorist regime which has already committed countless crimes in Ukraine.

We must accept a very basic idea once and for all: terrorists should not be appeased, nor should criminal regimes be treated as if they were legitimate governments comparable to those of democratic countries. Terrorists must be fought, isolated, and all their sources of funding cut off. This is something that some governments still seem not to have understood, and this attitude benefits criminals like Vladimir Putin and his allies, the dictatorships of China, Belarus, Iran, Cuba, and Venezuela.

What Russia deserves is international isolation and the imposition of every possible sanction, in addition to sending all the military aid we can to Ukraine so that its people can confront these terrorists. Any measure that favors Russia to a greater or lesser degree sends the message that terrorism is profitable. No democratic country should accept such an abhorrent idea, nor should it remain indifferent to the daily crimes that the Ukrainian people are suffering at the hands of the Russian invaders.

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Photos: ДСНС України.