A few days before Ukraine’s Independence Day, the government in Kyiv is warning of serious Russian rocket attacks. The fear is confirmed. According to President Zelensky, at least 22 people die in an attack in the city of Chaplino.
Exactly six months after the start of the Ukraine war, at least 22 people were killed in a Russian attack on a train station in the center of the country, according to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Dozens more people were injured on Wednesday in Chaplino in the Dnipropetrovsk region, Zelenskyj said in his daily video address last evening. Among the fatalities are five people who were burned in a car.
According to Selenskyj, an eleven-year-old boy was also among the fatalities. He died in his house, which was destroyed by a Russian missile. In a previous interim assessment of the attack, the Ukrainian head of state had spoken of at least 15 dead and around 50 other people injured in Chaplino. Four railway carriages caught fire as a result of the shelling.
Zelenskyj made his first statements about the attack in Chaplino in a video link with the UN Security Council in New York, which was holding a special session on the occasion of Ukraine’s Independence Day.
The anniversary of Ukraine’s independence fell exactly six months to the day after Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine began. Against this background, Russian attacks on infrastructure facilities and government buildings in Ukraine were feared for Wednesday.
Ukraine declared its independence on August 24, 1991, following the collapse of the Soviet Union. Russia invaded the neighboring country on February 24 after months of tension.