Russian attack on Independence Day in central Ukraine kills 15 citizens

TIL Desk/World/Kyiv/ Russian forces Wednesday launched a rocket attack on a train station in central Ukraine on the embattled country’s Independence Day, killing at least 15 people and wounding about 50, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said after warning for days that Moscow might attempt “something particularly cruel” this week.

The lethal attack took place in Chaplyne, a town of about 3,500 people in the Dnipropetrovsk region, Ukrainian news agencies quoted Zelenskyy as telling the U.N. Security Council via video. Ukraine had been bracing for especially heavy attacks surrounding the national holiday that commemorates Ukraine’s declaration of independence from the Soviet Union in 1991.

Ukraine also marked the six-month point in the war. Ahead of Independence Cay, Kyiv authorities banned large gatherings in the capital through Thursday for fear of missile strikes. Residents of the capital, which has been largely spared in recent months, woke up Wednesday to air raid sirens, but no immediate strikes followed.

As the day wore on, Russian bombardment was reported in the country’s east, west and central areas, with the most serious attack apparently at the train station. Outgoing British Prime Minister Boris Johnson marked the holiday with a visit to Kyiv — his third since the war broke out — and other European leaders used the occasion to pledge unwavering support for Ukraine, locked in a battle that was widely expected to be a lightning conquest by Moscow but has turned into a grinding war of attrition.