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At least 15 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.
“As of now, at least 15 people have been killed and around 50 people have been wounded,” Zelenskiy said. “Rescuers are working, but, unfortunately, the death toll could increase.”
One 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.
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 that aimed to reverse that step away from Moscow’s control.
Many in the capital on Wednesday were taking stock of both their achievements and losses.
