At least five hurt in Russian strikes on railway infrastructure in southern Ukraine

KYIV, March 4 (Reuters) – At least five people were injured on Wednesday in two Russian attacks targeting railway infrastructure in southern Ukraine, Ukrainian officials said.

A railway worker was hurt in a drone strike, which hit an empty passenger train in the morning in the Mykolaiv region, Deputy Prime Minister Oleksiy Kuleba said on the Telegram messaging app.

Another worker and two children were hurt later when a Russian missile hit an administrative building at a railway station in the neighbouring Odesa region, he said.

An official later updated the number of injured in the missile attack to four, without saying who the fourth person was.

Kuleba said there was also an attempted Russian drone attack late on Tuesday on a train operating between the eastern-central city of Dnipro and Kovel in northwestern Ukraine. It was stopped by railway workers and the drone hit a few metres away from the locomotive, he said. 

Ukrzaliznytsia, Ukrainian national railways, said Russia had intensified drone attacks on railway infrastructure, and that rolling stock was among the main targets.

It reported that 18 strikes had been recorded since the start of March, damaging 41 facilities.

Locomotives, freight cars and specialised equipment used to repair infrastructure have also been targeted, as well as railway depots and bridges, the operator said.

On Monday, a Russian drone attack on a commuter train in Dnipropetrovsk region killed one person and wounded seven others.

(Reporting by Anna Pruchnicka; Editing by Gareth Jones)