Europe

Russian shelling kills at least three in eastern Ukraine

Missile attack strikes railway station in Kharkiv, wounding 10

Ukrainian soldiers at their firing position in the Donetsk region, Ukraine,. Photograph: Nicole Tung/The New York Times

Thu Apr 25 2024 - 06:28

Russian shelling killed at least three people in Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region on Thursday and a missile attack further north in Kharkiv region hit a railway station, wounding 10, local officials said.

Donetsk regional governor Vadym Filashkin, writing on the Telegram messaging app, said shelling killed three people and injured four in the village of Udachne, west of the city of Donetsk that is held by Russians.

Ukrainian Railways said a Russian strike killed three of its workers in Donetsk region, but gave no details of where the incident occurred. It was not clear if those victims were the same as those mentioned by the governor.

In Kharkiv region, a frequent target of recent Russian assaults, regional governor Oleh Syniehubov said the attack hit the city of Balakliia, which was occupied by Russia at the start of its invasion and recaptured by Ukraine months later in 2022. “The injured were in the passenger train carriages,” he said on Telegram messenger.

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Syniehubov said the train was standing 15m from the focal point of the strike.

Kharkiv, which lies about 30km from the border with Russia, and the surrounding region have long been targeted by Russian attacks, but the strikes have become more intense in recent weeks, hitting civilian and energy infrastructure.

Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy expressed his gratitude on Thursday for the recently approved $60.8 billion US aid bill for Ukraine during calls with US House of Representatives speaker Mike Johnson and Senate majority leader Chuck Schumer.

Mr Zelenskiy said on X that he had thanked Mr Johnson, a Republican, who had been blocking a vote on the bill, “for his leadership that ensured true bipartisan support for aid to Ukraine”. In a conversation with Mr Schumer, he praised the Democratic Party’s unwavering support.

The presidential website said Mr Zelenskiy described the situation along the 1,000km front line of the war and “attacks by the Russian occupiers on civilian infrastructure and the need to boost air defences, notably Patriot systems”.

“The president noted that it is important to send this latest aid package to Ukraine as quickly as possible,” the statement on the website read. – Reuters

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