Highlights
- Russian missile hit a train station in the Dnipropetrovsk region, killing at least 22.
- President Zelenskyy told the UN Security Council of the incident through a video.
- The president’s office also reported that an 11-year-old child was killed by rocket fire.
Russia Ukraine news: Soon after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy warned that Moscow might attempt "something particularly cruel" this week, a Russian missile hit a train station in the Dnipropetrovsk region, killing at least 22. President Zelenskyy told the UN Security Council of the incident through a video, informing that at least 50 others got injured in the attack. The attack took place on Ukraine's Independence Day in Chaplyne, a town of about 3,500 people in the central Dnipropetrovsk region.
The president’s office also reported that an 11-year-old child was killed by rocket fire earlier in the day in the settlement. “Chaplyne is our pain today,” Zelenskyy said in his nightly video address to the nation. The deputy head of Zelenskyy’s office later said 22 people were wounded in the attack, which hit five passenger rail cars.
Ukraine had been bracing for especially heavy attacks around the national holiday that commemorates Ukraine’s declaration of independence from the Soviet Union in 1991. Wednesday also marked the six-month point in the war. Days ahead of Independence Day, Kyiv authorities banned large gatherings in the capital through Thursday for fear of missile strikes.
Over the weekend, Zelenskyy cautioned that Russia “may try to do something particularly nasty, something particularly cruel” this week. He repeated the warnings ahead of the train station attack, saying, “Russian provocations and brutal strikes are a possibility.”
Nevertheless, a festive atmosphere prevailed during the day at Kyiv’s Maidan square as thousands of residents posed for pictures next to burned-out Russian tanks put on display. Folk singers set up, and many revelers — ignoring the sirens — were out and about in traditionally embroidered dresses and shirts.
However, fear prevailed among some as residents of Kyiv, which has been largely spared in recent months, woke up to air raid sirens, but no immediate strikes followed. As the day wore on, Russian bombardments were reported in the country’s east, west and center, with the most serious attack apparently at the train station.
Outgoing British Prime Minister Boris Johnson marked the holiday with a visit to Kyiv — his third since the war broke out — and other European leaders used the occasion to pledge unwavering support for Ukraine, locked in a battle that was widely expected to be a lightning conquest by Moscow but has turned into a grinding war of attrition. U.S. President Joe Biden announced a new military aid package of nearly $3 billion to help Ukrainian forces fight for years to come.
(With inputs from AP)
