Civilians among 25 killed in train station attack: Ukraine

Kyiv, August 25

Russia’s Defence Ministry on Thursday said its forces had struck a railway station in eastern Ukraine, confirming an attack which Kyiv says also hit a residential area and killed 25 civilians as the nation marked its Independence Day.

In its daily briefing, the ministry said an Iskander missile had hit a military train on Wednesday at the station of Chaplyne that had been set to deliver arms to Ukrainian forces on the frontline in the eastern Donbas region.

Ukrainian presidential aide Kyrylo Tymoshenko said 21 persons were killed when the strike hit the railway station and set five train carriages ablaze, while a boy died when a missile hit his home in the vicinity. The toll rose to 25 on Thursday after three more bodies were retrieved from the rubble, he said. The Russian ministry said some 200 Ukrainian military personnel had died in the attack. The Chaplyne attack and artillery shelling of frontline towns, including Kharkiv, Mykolaiv, Nikopol and Dnipro, followed President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s warnings of Russian provocations ahead of Wednesday’s 31st anniversary of Ukraine’s declaration of independence from Moscow-dominated Soviet rule.

August 24 also marked six months since Russian forces invaded Ukraine, starting Europe’s most devastating conflict since World War II.

“Eight Russian X-22 missiles hit Ukraine’s territory on Wednesday. Our anti-aircraft defences do not have the ability to counter high-speed missiles that are launched at air platforms having such high speed, which is why we need to strengthen our anti-aircraft defence,” said Yuriy Ignat, spokesperson for Ukrainian air force command

Fighting in the area near the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant, Europe’s biggest, in eastern Ukraine, has emerged as a major cause for concern, with Moscow and Kyiv trading accusations of risking a disaster by shelling the plant.

The UN has called for the area to be demilitarised and its nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency, is seeking to gain access. On Thursday, its chief Rafael Grossi said the agency was “very, very close” to being able to travel to the plant, captured by Russian forces in March but still run by Ukrainian technicians. — Reuters

Russia to beef up forces by 1,37,000

Moscow: Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday ordered the Russian military to increase the number of troops by 1,37,000 to a total of 1.15 million amid Moscow’s military action in Ukraine. Putin’s decree didn’t specify whether the military will beef up its ranks by drafting a bigger number of conscripts, increasing the number of volunteer soldiers or using a combination of both. But some Russian military analysts predicted it would rely heavily on volunteers. AP