US support for Kiev with weapons and equipment worth 3 billion dollars

Russia confirms "Independence Day" strike with Iskander missile

Russian "Malka" artillery systems during shelling from an undisclosed location in Ukraine.

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The Russian Defense Ministry said yesterday that its forces bombed a train station in eastern Ukraine, coinciding with Kyiv's commemoration of its independence anniversary, while Washington announced support for Kyiv with weapons and equipment worth three billion dollars.

And the Russian Defense Ministry announced in a daily briefing that an Iskander missile hit an army train, the day before yesterday, at the Chaplin station, which was to transport weapons to Ukrainian forces on the front line in the Donbass region in the east of the country.

Aide to Ukrainian President Kirillo Tymoshenko said 21 people were killed when the strike hit the train station and set five train cars on fire, while a boy was killed by a missile that hit his home in a nearby area.

He added that the death toll rose to 25 yesterday, after three more bodies were recovered from under the rubble.

The Russian military said about 200 Ukrainian military personnel were killed in the attack.

Chaplin's attack and artillery bombardment on front-line towns including Kharkiv, Mykolaiv, Nikopol and Dnipro followed Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky's warnings of Russian provocations ahead of the 31st anniversary of Ukraine's declaration of independence from Soviet rule, which fell on Wednesday.

The anniversary also coincided with the passage of six months since the Russian war on Ukraine, which led to the outbreak of the most destructive conflict in Europe since World War II.

The United Nations called for the demilitarization of the area near the Zaporizhia nuclear plant, which the International Atomic Energy Agency of the International Organization is seeking to reach.

Agency director general Rafael Grossi told French radio yesterday that the agency would be able "very, very soon" to travel to the station, which was seized by Russian forces in March but is still operated by Ukrainian technicians.

And the Russian news agency (RIA Novosti) reported that the safety systems were activated at the Zaporizhia station yesterday, after news of a power outage in large areas of the territory controlled by Russia.

As rescue operations ended in the small town of Chaplin, about 145 km west of Russian-controlled Donetsk, residents wept amid the rubble of smashed homes for loved ones they had lost.

Russia denies targeting civilians.

She also said that the railway infrastructure is a legitimate target for her because it serves to supply Ukraine with Western weapons.

After Zelensky told the UN Security Council of the attack in a video message, US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken said on Twitter: "The Russian missile strike on a train station packed with civilians in Ukraine falls under the description of atrocities."

Moscow said in its daily briefing that it destroyed eight Ukrainian fighter jets in strikes on air bases in the Ukrainian regions of Poltava and Dnepropetrovsk.

These losses would be among the largest incurred by the Ukrainian air force in recent weeks.

Ukrainian authorities in the region reported Russian missile strikes in the Khmelnytskyi region of western Kyiv, which is located hundreds of kilometers from the front lines.

There were no reports of material or human losses.

With its ground campaign on hold in recent months after its forces were expelled from Kyiv in the first weeks of the war, Russia intensified its devastating air offensive.

A spokesman for the Ukrainian Air Force Command, Yury Ignat, told state television yesterday that eight Russian X-22 missiles hit Ukrainian territory on Wednesday, stressing that Kyiv needs more help to strengthen its defenses.

"High-speed missiles are launched from air platforms at this speed, our anti-aircraft defenses do not have the ability to effectively counter these means, so we need to strengthen our anti-aircraft defense," he added.

Kyiv has repeatedly called for its support with more advanced Western military equipment, which it says it needs to fend off a Russian attack.

US President Joe Biden announced, the day before yesterday, that he would support Ukraine with weapons and equipment worth three billion dollars, bringing the total commitment of his administration in military aid to more than 13.5 billion dollars.

In the southern Kherson region, which has seen some of the fiercest fighting in the past weeks, the Sospilan public television channel quoted local sources as saying that explosions occurred near the Antonevsky bridge across the Dnipro River, a major supply line for Russian forces in the region.

The Southern Military Command of Ukraine also reported missile strikes on the Nova Kakhovka Dam at the crossing of the Dnipro River, another important supply line for Russian forces in the region.

At a Security Council session on Wednesday, Russian Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia stressed that Moscow's goal is to " rid (Ukraine) of the Nazis and disarm it" to eliminate Russia's "clear" security threats.

Ukraine and the West rejected Russia's position, and considered it a baseless excuse to launch a war that killed thousands of civilians, displaced millions, left cities under rubble, destabilized the global economy, and caused shortages in basic foodstuffs and led to a rise in energy prices.

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