The Albany Gazette - Russian strikes kill three in east Ukraine

"Russian terrorists inflicted a massive strike on the railway infrastructure of Lozova," the Ukrainian Railways company said in a Telegram post.

Ukraine's railways have been heavily targeted by Russia's army throughout its invasion, launched in February 2022.

Moscow has escalated aerial attacks even ahead of a Friday deadline by US President Donald Trump to make progress towards peace or face massive sanctions nears.

The nighttime strikes in the city of Lozova in the eastern Kharkiv region left a passenger train mangled and charred, and damaged the station building with a pile of rubble on the platform.

"A duty mechanic of one of the units was killed," Ukrainian Railways said, adding that several trains have been rerouted.

President Volodymyr Zelensky said Russia had launched more than 25 Iranian-designed Shahed drones at the city, striking "civilian infrastructure".

"The railway was damaged, including a depot and a station," he said on social media, adding that 10 people were wounded in the attack.

Ukraine's air force said Russia fired 46 attack drones and one ballistic missile in the barrage -- down from the several hundred that Moscow has the capacity to launch.

Lozova Mayor Sergiy Zelensky called the strike "the most massive attack" on the city since the beginning of the war.

A separate Russian strike on Ukraine's northeast Sumy region killed two more people at an "agricultural enterprise", authorities said.

Trumps deadline looms after three rounds of peace talks in Istanbul failed to make headway on a possible ceasefire, with the two sides remaining far apart.

Russia's army has escalated attacks and accelerated its advance on the ground to capture more Ukrainian territory.

US envoy Steve Witkoff will visit Russia this week, where he is expected to meet President Vladimir Putin, ahead of the Friday sanctions deadline.

(F.Jackson--TAG)