A Russian shelling of the Chaplyne train station in central Ukraine on Wednesday has left at least 22 people dead, according to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
Ongoing search and rescue operations have seen the recovery of five bodies from a car on the railway track, Zelensky confirmed in a virtual address. And over 50 people were injured by the shelling according to earlier information.
“Chaplyne is our pain today.” Mr Zelensky stated.
The shelling happened on the day Ukraine celebrated 31 years of independence, six months since Russia began its invasion.
“It is almost night, our main day, Independence Day of Ukraine, is coming to an end. But our independence does not end and will never end,” Zelensky said.
Road infrastructure has suffered since the invasion. About 57 people were reported to have died in an attack on the Kramatorsk station in the eastern Donbas region.
Russia launched its invasion of Ukraine on February 24, and after failing to capture the capital Kyiv, it retreated to focus on capturing the separatist-dominated areas in the east and south of the country.
The day saw Ukrainians celebrating their independence from the Soviet Union in 1991 but the celebrations were dampened by Russian shelling in several locations across the country. In Dnipropetrovsk, an 11-year-old child was killed by the shelling on Wednesday, according to Local officials.
Governments around the world have demanded Russia stop the war. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has however expressed fears that the war would not be ending anytime soon.
“Despite progress on the humanitarian front, fighting in Ukraine shows no signs of ending – with new potential areas of dangerous escalation appearing,” he explained to the UN Security Council, New York. “Today marks a sad and tragic milestone. Thousands of civilians have been killed and injured, including hundreds of children.”
Gutterres also warned of the potential disaster at the Zaporizhzhya nuclear power plant and called for an intervention by the Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).
Russian forces have occupied the Zaporizhzhya plant, the largest nuclear site in Europe, since march. And there have been several attacks near the facility in recent weeks. Other countries have also expressed concerns regarding this.
“The past months, we have seen an emerging risk of nuclear calamity in Europe. It is deplorable that we even need to say that a nuclear power plant should never be used as a military base,” European Union’s UN ambassador Silvo Gonzato stated.
Zelensky suggested that Rusia relinquish control of the Zaporizhzhya plant to the IAEA while addressing the UN Security Council.
Meanwhile, U.S President Joe Buden announced that the United States would provide 2.98 billion dollars worth of weapons and other equipment in Washington.
So far, the U.S has donated billions of dollars in security aid to Ukraine since Biden took the seat. Washington’s representative has also expressed the U.S. resolve to maintain Ukraine’s territorial integrity.
