At least 22 killed in Russian strike on rail
station on Ukraine’s independence day
Rocket attack in Chaplyne wounds 50 people as country
marks six months since Moscow’s invasion
Isobel
Koshiw and Emma Graham-Harrison in Kyiv and Julian Borger in Washington
Wed 24 Aug
2022 21.11 BST
At least 22
people have been killed and 50 wounded in a Russian rocket strike on a
Ukrainian railway station, as the country marked six months since Moscow’s
invasion on a sombre independence day overshadowed by warnings of further
“brutal” attacks.
Addressing
the UN late on Wednesday, Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, said the
rockets struck a train in a station in the town of Chaplyne, about 145km (90
miles) west of Donetsk in eastern Ukraine.
“Rescuers
are working, but, unfortunately, the death toll could increase,” Zelenskiy
said.
An
11-year-old child died in the attack, said Kirill Timoshenko, deputy head of
Ukraine’s presidential administration, in a message on his Telegram channel.
Ukraine had
been bracing for especially heavy attacks around the national holiday that
commemorates its declaration of independence from the Soviet Union in 1991.
Earlier in
the day, air raid sirens had sounded across every metre of Ukrainian-controlled
territory. The sense of foreboding was deepened by a warning from the White
House that the Russians had stepped up preparations to hold sham referendums in
occupied regions as a precursor to annexations, and that they could begin “in a
matter of days or weeks”.
Joe Biden
announced a further $3bn (£2.5bn) in military aid, including anti-aircraft
missiles, artillery, counter-drone defences and radar equipment, as a show of
US support on Ukrainian independence day, while senior politicians from across
Europe travelled to Kyiv to show their support in person, despite security
warnings including a US call for its citizens to leave the country.
The UK
prime minister, Boris Johnson, in his third visit to the country since Russia
invaded, urged the international community to “stay the course” in its support
for Ukraine. He also told Zelenskiy that Ukraine “can and will win the war”.
It is 31
years since Ukraine declared its independence from the Soviet Union, and six
months to the day since Russia launched a war aiming to reverse that step away
from Moscow’s control.
Many in the
capital on Wednesday were taking stock of both their achievements and losses.
Few outside Ukraine, even among its allies, expected the country to hold off
Russia’s army so effectively, including in a decisive victory outside Kyiv.
But the
country has paid a terrible human price for its success so far. Thousands of
civilians have been killed since the war began on 24 February, while Ukraine
has acknowledged 9,000 military deaths, millions have lost their homes or been
forced into exile, and there is little hope that an end to the fighting is in
sight.
“I’m
constantly worried and praying that our skies remain blue and I understand that
people are giving their lives for this,” said Yana Pasychnyk, a choral singer
in one of Ukraine’s national choirs. She was heading home after performing at
Kyiv’s St Sophia Cathedral.
“As I’m
speaking to you now I have goosebumps. People I know, my godson even, is
fighting at the front. There’s no celebration today. I can’t even believe that
this is happening.”
Earlier,
Zelenskiy told his fellow citizens that their country was reborn when Russia
invaded, in a speech recorded on the steps of the capital’s monument to
independence.
“A new
nation appeared in the world on 24 February at four in the morning. It was not
born, but reborn. A nation that did not cry, scream or take fright. One that
did not flee. Did not give up. And did not forget,” he said.
He pledged
to keep fighting until Ukraine had recaptured annexed Crimea and occupied areas
in the east. “What for us is the end of the war? We used to say peace. Now we
say victory.”
A
spokesperson for Biden’s national security council, John Kirby, warned that
Moscow was making preparations to stage referendums in the occupied areas.
“We have
information that Russia continues to prepare to hold these sham referendum in
Kherson, Zaporizhzhia, and the so called Donetsk and Luhansk people’s
republics,” Kirby said. “We’ve also learned that the Russian leadership has
instructed officials to begin preparing to hold sham referenda, particularly in
Kharkiv as well. And these referenda could begin in a matter of days or weeks.
In fact, we can see a Russian announcement of the first one or ones before the
end of this week.”
Kirby said
that holding referendums, intended as a prelude to annexation, was proving a
challenge to Russian organisers in the face of the near-total opposition of
Ukraine’s population.
“Our
information is that Russian officials are so concerned that there will be a low
voter turnout … that they’re trying to work on workarounds and how they would
how they would communicate that,” he said, but did not describe what those
“workarounds” might be.
Meanwhile,
the Russian defence minister, Sergei Shoigu, claimed that the slowing pace of
Russia’s military campaign in Ukraine was deliberate, and driven by the need to
reduce civilian casualties.
Shoigu
said: “Everything is being done to avoid casualties among civilians. Of course,
this slows down the pace of the offensive, but we are doing this deliberately.”
Zelenskiy
had warned on the eve of the holiday that Ukraine might face “repugnant Russian
provocations”, and urged citizens to take seriously any air raid warnings –
often ignored by a population now inured to the risks of war.
Zelenskiy
also celebrated national unity, which has been bolstered by a powerful
government messaging campaign. “We are fighting against the most terrible
threat to our statehood and also at a time when we have achieved the greatest
level of national unity,” he said.
A display
of destroyed Russian tanks and other military equipment on the main street of
the capital replaced the usual military parade through the centre of Kyiv,
cancelled over fears that such a symbolic day could attract fresh attacks.
It was both
a celebration of Ukraine’s military success and a trolling of Moscow’s
expectations of a quick victory; it had sent some soldiers to battle with
parade uniforms that they had expected to use in Kyiv.
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