Russian Drone Strike Kills 5 on Passenger Bus Near Nikopol

A Russian drone struck a passenger minibus carrying civilians near Nikopol, Dnipropetrovsk Oblast, on the morning of September 16, killing 5 people and injuring at least 7 others. Dnipropetrovsk regional council head Mykola Lukashuk said Russian forces 'cynically struck a passenger bus... which carried people going about their daily business.' The strike was part of a broader wave of Russian attacks that killed at least 9 and injured 36 people across Ukraine over the preceding 24 hours, including 1 killed and 7 injured in Zaporizhzhia (746 strikes on 52 settlements), 1 killed and 7 injured in Kherson Oblast, 2 killed in Sloviansk (Donetsk Oblast), 12 injured in Kharkiv Oblast from guided aerial bombs and drones, and 17 sites damaged across Kyiv Oblast's Bila Tserkva, Boryspil, Brovary, Bucha, and Obukhiv districts. President Zelensky called the string of strikes on civilians an 'atrocity,' saying 'each of these strikes is about the lives of ordinary people who need to be protected by forcing Russia to stop its stupid war.' Human Rights Ombudsman Dmytro Lubinets flagged the recurring pattern of Russian strikes on civilian transport.