Kyiv (Ukraine) (AFP) - A Russian drone slammed into a busy railway platform in the Ukrainian city of Dnipro Thursday, killing at least 14 people in what President Volodymyr Zelensky called a “horrific” attack that demands action by Kyiv’s allies.

The strike came as Ukraine and Russia kept to a fragile local ceasefire in the ravaged city of Oleshky – under Russian occupation since 2022 and where residents have faced months of food, water and medicine shortages.

While the truce held into a third day, at least 20 people were killed and more than 70 people injured, according to local officials, in strikes across the country.

The strike on Dnipro station hit a platform “where a regular commuter train and a regular passenger train were standing”, Zelensky said.

By Thursday afternoon, Dnipropetrovsk regional governor Oleksandr Ganzha said the death toll had risen to 14 with another 14 people wounded, six of them in severe condition with “multiple shrapnel wounds”.

One injured was an 11-year-old boy, while one man had “both legs amputated”, according to the governor.

Zelensky slammed the attack as “horrific” and insisted that “sanctions against Moscow and its war machine must not be eased for as long as this Russian war continues”.

Images released by Ukrainian emergency services showed bodies on the platform, rescuers helping victims and two burnt-out passenger trains with their windows shattered.

French President Emmanuel Macron reacted with outrage to the attack, stressing the need for “far more than a localised ceasefire” like the one in Oleshky.

- Zelensky slams sanctions relief -

European Union council president Antonio Costa called for greater pressure on Russia after the latest “cruel and devastating series of Russian strikes against civilians.

“The EU will continue to increase the pressure on Russia and to support Ukraine until a just and lasting peace is achieved,” he added.

“We call on all our international partners to do the same.”

Russia has fired drones on trains across Ukraine since the first days of its 2022 invasion – destroying hundreds of locomotives and killing several railway workers.

Ukraine’s air force said it intercepted three jet-powered drones in one daytime attack, but that a fourth evaded its defences and hit the station.

After the attack, Zelensky renewed his criticism of a deal struck between US President Donald Trump and Russia’s President Vladimir Putin to ease some US sanctions on Russia allowing Moscow to release diesel onto global markets.

“How many such terrorist strikes has Russia carried out against our people since sanctions were lifted on some Russian oligarchs and the energy sector, instead of de-escalating,” he asked.

“It is important that America does not remain silent about the killings – this is very important,” he added in a separate statement.

At least six other people were killed across Ukraine in separate Russian attacks, according to local officials.

- Two teenagers killed -

An attack on the city centre of Chernigiv, north of Kyiv, killed two 15-year-old girls and wounded nearly two dozen other people, including four children, the head of the city’s military administration, Dmytro Bryzhynsky, said.

A drone slammed into a multi-storey residential building in the central city of Kremenchuk, killing three people and wounding several – including a six-year-old – the local governor said.

Russia has intensified drone and missile attacks in recent weeks, hitting energy sites in what Kyiv says is a bid to plunge the country into cold and darkness throughout the winter.

The Kremlin this week vowed not to let up the overall pace of the war even as the sides prepare to restart stalled talks under US mediation.

Zelensky said on Wednesday it would be a “huge success” if the local ceasefire in Oleshky – brokered by US First Lady Melania Trump – allowed for the evacuation of stranded citizens.

Trapped locals have resorted to hunting and eating pigeons in recent months, former residents in touch with those in the city told AFP.

Russia and Ukraine are to meet next month with US envoys to discuss ways to end Europe’s worst conflict since World War II, with no firm dates set for the talks yet.

Several previous rounds have failed to move the sides closer to a deal.

Russia demands more territory in eastern Ukraine and sweeping military and political restrictions on Kyiv.

Ukraine and its allies say ceding ground to Moscow would be tantamount to a capitulation and leave Kyiv vulnerable to future Russian attacks.