kyiv feared such an attack. She finally arrived on the evening of Wednesday August 24, the national holiday which celebrates Ukrainian independence. A Russian bombardment on a railway station in Chaplyne left at least 25 dead, including two children, and 31 injured, in the Dnipropetrovsk region in central Ukraine, according to the Ukrainian train operator.
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A heavy toll
The announcement came from President Zelensky on Wednesday. “I just received information about a Russian missile strike on a train station in the Dnipropetrovsk region [centre de l’Ukraine], right on the wagons at Chaplyne station. Four passenger cars are on fire”affirmed the Ukrainian president during a speech before the UN Security Council.
We are in Chaplyne in central Ukraine. Our images of the train being blown up by a hit. Civilians killed but also Ukrainian soldiers.#Ukraine @infofrance2 @franceinfo @stef_guillemot pic.twitter.com/9cB0GgZWLQ
— Maryse Burgot (@MaryseBurgot) August 25, 2022
In his speech, the Ukrainian President gave an initial provisional assessment: “There are 22 dead, including five people who burned in a train car. A teenager died, he was 11 years old, a Russian rocket destroyed his house.” Since then, the toll has increased, according to the Ukrainian train operator. “According to the information of the morning, we have 25 dead including two children. Thirty-one people were injured, including two children”the company said on Telegram on Thursday.
The Ukrainian authorities have denounced the will of the Russian army to target civilians, in a “deliberate attack”. “It was not an attack on military infrastructure, it was an attack on a passenger train that was passing through this station”denounced Igor Zhovka, deputy chief of staff of the Ukrainian president on BFMTV.
“Search and rescue operations will continue, also explained President Volodymyr Zelensky. We will make the abusers pay for everything they have done. And we will drive them out of our land.”
Ukraine in mourning on its national day
kyiv feared an attack on Ukrainian National Day, which marks the anniversary of independence from the USSR in 1991.
No festivities were planned. Authorities in kyiv, where warning sirens sounded on Wednesday morning, banned all public gatherings from Monday to Thursday. In the northeast of the country, the governor of the Kharkiv region even ordered a curfew from Tuesday evening to Thursday morning.
The date of this bombardment can also be “just a coincidence” according to General Jérôme Pellistrandi, editor-in-chief of the review National Defense. “Since the start of the war, the Russians have had no qualms about civilian infrastructure”, he explained on franceinfo. If this bombardment shows one thing, it’s “Moscow’s determination to continue the war, national holiday or not”believes General Pellistrandi.
Rail, a strategic issue for the Russians
The targeting of a station owes nothing to chance, according to General Jerome Pellistrandi. He believes on franceinfo that this bombardment shows the will of Moscow “to hit infrastructure used by Ukrainians, in particular railway installations”.
The train is a strategic stake in the war, for the Ukrainians as for the Russians. “On the side of kyiv, it makes it possible to evacuate the Ukrainians from the east to the west, but also to bring in military equipment, supplies, details Jérôme Pellistrandi. On the other side, the Russians use the Ukrainian network they occupy for the same. So the stations are sought-after objectives, especially by the Russians.”
Especially since Tchaplyne is “a railway junction”. This station is located in central Ukraine, in the Dnipropetrovsk region, while most of the fighting is taking place today in eastern and southern Ukraine.
General Jérôme Pellistrandi is already anticipating Russian communication: “Presumably they will say that they hit a railway junction on which there were military trains. They have already done this several times.” Especially since “for the Russians, civilian casualties have no value”believes the editor-in-chief of the journal National Defense.