A Russian rocket struck a Ukrainian railway station on Tuesday, the 31st anniversary of Ukraine’s independence from the Soviet Union.
The attack hit a station in Chaplyne in the Dnipropetrovsk region. It borders Donetsk, which has been a separatist area since 2014.
The death toll sits at 25, including a 6-year-old and an 11-year-old.
Russia claimed the strike killed hundreds of Ukrainian strikes even though the country keeps insisting it doesn’t target civilian infrastructure.
Five of the victims of the attack in the eastern town of Chaplyne burnt to death in a vehicle, officials said. Two boys aged six and 11 were also killed.President Volodymyr Zelensky reported the strike during a UN Security Council meeting. A further 31 people were hurt.Russia said it hit a military train killing hundreds of Ukrainian troops.”As a result of a direct hit by an Iskander missile on a military train at the Chaplyne railway station in the Dnipropetrovsk region, more than 200 servicemen of the reserve of Ukraine’s Armed Forces and 10 units of military equipment were destroyed, on their way to combat zones in the Donbas,” its defence ministry said in a statement.Ukraine has made no mention of military deaths in the strike.Moscow has repeatedly denied targeting civilian infrastructure. Speaking on Thursday, UN human rights commissioner Michelle Bachelet called on Russia’s president to halt armed attacks on Ukraine.
The Ukrainian government asked citizens to have quiet and small Independence Day celebrations because “Russia might do something ‘cruel’ to disrupt the celebrations.”
When the Soviet Union lost Ukraine, it knew it was the end because Ukraine was the second most powerful republic in the Soviet Union. It was the most important agricultural provider.
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