Russia bombs Ukrainian train station on Independence Day: President Zelensky reports at least 22 dead | War Ukraine and Russia

Read all the news about the war in Ukraine in this dossier.

Russian missiles hit a train in the village of Chaplyne, about 145 kilometers west of Donetsk in eastern Ukraine, Zelensky said. Four trainsets catch fire, Ukrainian president reports. Rescue efforts are underway, but the death toll could rise, it said.

Russia continues to deny that it targets civilians. At least 57 people were killed in April when Russian missiles hit Kramatorsk train station.

The attack takes place on Ukraine’s Independence Day. Today, Ukrainians remember the country’s secession from the Soviet Union in 1991. Festivities, however, were canceled for fear of Russian shelling. Zelensky had warned this week that Russia might seize the day for a massive attack on Ukrainian cities. The war against Russia, which began on February 24, is also entering its seventh month today.

“This is our life every day. This is how Russia is preparing for this UN session,” said Zelensky. The Security Council mainly talks about the Zaporizhzhya nuclear power plant occupied by the Russians, about which there are many international concerns. Zelensky argued that Russia must “unconditionally stop nuclear blackmail” and “completely withdraw” from the plant now that there is a risk of nuclear radiation being released.

UN chief António Guterres again called for an international expert mission, for which there is still no green light despite official support from the warring parties. “The hazard lights are flashing.”

The secretary general sees no signs that the war in Ukraine will end soon. “Today marks a sad and tragic milestone,” he said of the “devastating” war that began exactly six months ago. Guterres recalled the thousands of dead and injured and the grave violations of human rights and international humanitarian law. But the deal that Moscow and Kiev signed last month to export grain from Ukraine gives hope, he said.