By Derek Gatopoulos and Inna Varenytsiakyiv,
KYIV Ukraine
Russian forces Wednesday launched a rocket attack on a Ukrainian train station on the embattled country’s Independence Day, killing 22 people, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said after warning for days that Moscow might attempt “something particularly cruel” this week.
The lethal attack took place
in Chaplyne, a town of about 3,500 people in the central Dnipropetrovsk region,
Ukrainian news agencies quoted Zelenskyy as telling the U.N. Security Council
via video. 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.
At one point, Zelenskyy put
the number of wounded at about 50. 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.
Residents of Kyiv, which has
been largely spared in recent months, woke up Wednesday 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.
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.
“I can’t sleep at night
because of what I see and hear about what is being done in Ukraine,” said a
retiree who gave only her first name, Tetyana, her voice shaking with emotion.
“This is not a war. It is the destruction of the Ukrainian people.”
In a holiday message to the
country, Zelenskyy exulted over Ukraine’s success in fending off Moscow’s forces
since the invasion, saying: “On Feb. 24, we were told: You have no chance. On
Aug. 24, we say: Happy Independence Day, Ukraine!”
Britain’s Johnson urged
Western allies to stand by Ukraine through the winter.
“This is not the time to put
forward flimsy negotiating proposals,” he said. “You can’t negotiate with a
bear when it’s eating your leg or with a street robber when he has you pinned
to the floor.”
A car bombing outside Moscow that
killed the 29-year-old daughter of right-wing Russian political theorist
Alexander Dugin on Saturday also heightened fears that Russia might intensify
attacks on Ukraine this week. Russian officials have blamed Ukraine for the
death of Darya Dugina, a pro-Kremlin TV commentator. Ukraine has denied any
involvement.
Russian
President Vladimir Putin’s forces have encountered unexpectedly stiff
Ukrainian resistance in their invasion and abandoned their effort to storm the
capital in the spring. The fighting has turned into a slog that has reduced
neighborhoods to rubble and sent shock waves through the world economy.
Russian Defense Minister
Sergei Shoigu, speaking Wednesday at a meeting of his counterparts from a
security organization dominated by Russia and China, claimed the slow pace of
Moscow’s military action was due to what he said was an effort to spare civilians.
Russian forces have repeatedly
targeted civilian areas in cities, including hospitals and a Mariupol theater
where hundreds of people were taking shelter.
But Shoigu said Russia is
carrying out strikes with precision weapons against Ukrainian military targets,
and “everything is done to avoid civilian casualties.”
“Undoubtedly, it slows down
the pace of the offensive, but we do it deliberately,” he said.
On the battlefield, Russian
forces struck several towns and villages in Donetsk province in the east over
24 hours, killing one person, authorities said. A building materials superstore
in the city of Donetsk was hit by a shell and erupted in flames, the mayor
said. There were no immediate reports of any injuries.
In the Dnipropetrovsk region,
the Russians again shelled the cities of Nikopol and Marhanets, damaging
several buildings and wounding people, authorities said. Russian troops also
shelled the city of Zaporizhzhia, but no casualties were reported.
In addition, Russian rockets
struck unspecified targets in the Khmelnytskyi region, about 300 kilometers
(180 miles) west of Kyiv, the regional governor said. Attacks there have been
infrequent.
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