Russia confirms carrying out Independence Day missile strikes that Ukraine says killed 25 civilians
During the country’s Independence Day celebrations on Wednesday, a strike that Kiev claims also targeted a residential area and left 25 civilians dead was confirmed by the Russian Defense Ministry on Thursday, August 25.
The Russian Defense Ministry reported that an Iskander missile struck a military train on Wednesday at the Chaplyne station that was on its way to deliver supplies to Ukrainian forces fighting on the front lines in the eastern Donbas region.
According to Kyrylo Tymoshenko, a presidential aide from Ukraine, 21 people died when a missile struck a train station and set five train cars on fire. A young boy also perished when a missile struck a nearby home.
The death toll rose to 25 on Thursday after three more bodies were retrieved from rubble, Tymoshenko confirmed.
According to the Russian ministry, about 200 Ukrainian military personnel had died in the attack.
The Chaplyne attack and artillery shelling of frontline towns, including Kharkiv, Mykolaiv, Nikopol and Dnipro, came after Ukranian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s warnings of Russian provocations before the Wednesday’s 31st anniversary of Ukraine’s declaration of independence from Moscow-dominated Soviet rule.
Aug. 24 also marked six months since Russian forces invaded Ukraine, starting Europe’s most devastating conflict since World War Two.