After days of warnings that Moscow could use Independence Day to fire more missiles into major urban centres, the second-biggest city Kharkiv was under curfew, following months of bombardment.
Air raid sirens blared at least seven times in the capital Kyiv during the day though no attacks transpired.
In an emotional speech to compatriots earlier in the day, Zelensky said Ukraine was “reborn” when Russia invaded and that it would eventually drive out Russian forces completely.
“A new nation appeared in the world on February 24 at 4 in the morning. It was not born, but reborn. A nation that did not cry, scream or take fright. One that did not flee. Did not give up. And did not forget,” he said, speaking in front of Kyiv’s main monument to independence in his trademark combat fatigues.
The leader said Ukraine would recapture Russian-occupied areas of eastern Ukraine and the Crimean peninsula, which Russia annexed in 2014.
“We will not sit down at the negotiating table out of fear, with a gun pointed at our heads. For us, the most terrible iron is not missiles, aircraft and tanks, but shackles,” he said.
In its evening update, Ukraine’s army high command said Russian air and missile strikes on military and civilian targets alike continued through Wednesday. “Today was rich with air raid sirens,” it said in a note without giving further details.
Ukrainian forces shot down a Russian drone in the Vinnytsia region while multiple Russian missiles landed in the Khmelnytskyi area, regional authorities said — both west of Kyiv and hundreds of kilometres from front lines.
No damage or casualties were reported, and Reuters could not verify the accounts.
Russia has repeatedly denied its forces are aiming at civilian targets. Russian defence minister Sergei Shoigu told a meeting in Uzbekistan that Moscow had deliberately slowed down what it refers to as its “special military operation” in Ukraine to avoid civilian casualties.
At a UN security council session on Wednesday, Russian ambassador Vassily Nebenzia reiterated Moscow’s rationale for its actions in Ukraine, saying a “special operation” to remove “obvious” security threats to Russia.
Moscow’s stance has been dismissed by Ukraine and the West as a baseless pretext for an imperialist war of conquest.
Western support
Russia has made few advances in recent months after its troops were repelled from Kyiv in the early weeks of the war.
Ukraine’s top military intelligence official, Kyrylo Budanov, said on Wednesday Russia’s offensive was slowing because of moral and physical fatigue in its ranks and Moscow's “exhausted” resource base.
On the eastern front lines of Ukrainian resistance and in shattered cities, some with deserted streets under curfew, combatants and civilians marked the holiday with words of resolve and the promise of victory.
Ukraine declared independence from the disintegrating Soviet Union in August 1991, and its population voted overwhelmingly for independence in a referendum that December.
Russian forces have seized areas of the south including on the Black Sea and Sea of Azov coasts and large tracts of Luhansk and Donetsk provinces that comprise the eastern Donbas region.
The war has killed thousands of civilians, forced more than a third of Ukraine’s 41-million people from their homes, left cities in ruins and shaken the global economy, creating shortages of essential food grains and pushing up energy prices.
Reuters
Russian rockets kill 22 at a train station, Zelensky tells UN Security Council
Biden announced $3bn in military aid for Ukraine in largest tranche of security assistance to date
Kyiv — At least 22 people were killed and dozens wounded in a Russian rocket strike on a Ukrainian train station on Wednesday, President Volodymyr Zelensky said, as his nation marked the anniversary of its independence from Moscow-dominated Soviet rule.
Zelensky had warned on Tuesday of the risk of “repugnant Russian provocations” on Independence Day, which by chance was also six months since Russian forces invaded Ukraine, touching off Europe’s most devastating conflict since World War 2.
In a video address to the UN Security Council, Zelensky said the rockets hit a train in the small town of Chaplyne, about 145km west of Russian-occupied Donetsk in eastern Ukraine. Four carriages were on fire, he said.
“Chaplyne is our pain today. As of this moment there are 22 dead,” Zelensky said in a later evening video address, adding Ukraine would make Russia take responsibility for everything it had done.
“We will without any doubt evict the invaders from our land. No trace of this evil will remain in our free Ukraine,” he said.
The Russian defence ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
US President Joe Biden announced nearly $3bn for weapons and equipment for Ukraine in Washington’s “biggest tranche of security assistance to date”. Under Biden, the US has committed more than $13.5bn in security assistance to Ukraine.
On a surprise visit to Kyiv on Wednesday, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson also promised a further $63.5m worth of military support, including 2,000 drones.
Nato secretary-general Jens Stoltenberg told Ukrainians they were an inspiration to the world. “You can count on Nato’s support. For as long as it takes,” he said in a video message.
Celebrations of the August 24 public holiday were cancelled, but many Ukrainians marked the occasion by wearing embroidered shirts typical of the national dress and attended gatherings outside Ukraine.
After days of warnings that Moscow could use Independence Day to fire more missiles into major urban centres, the second-biggest city Kharkiv was under curfew, following months of bombardment.
Air raid sirens blared at least seven times in the capital Kyiv during the day though no attacks transpired.
In an emotional speech to compatriots earlier in the day, Zelensky said Ukraine was “reborn” when Russia invaded and that it would eventually drive out Russian forces completely.
“A new nation appeared in the world on February 24 at 4 in the morning. It was not born, but reborn. A nation that did not cry, scream or take fright. One that did not flee. Did not give up. And did not forget,” he said, speaking in front of Kyiv’s main monument to independence in his trademark combat fatigues.
The leader said Ukraine would recapture Russian-occupied areas of eastern Ukraine and the Crimean peninsula, which Russia annexed in 2014.
“We will not sit down at the negotiating table out of fear, with a gun pointed at our heads. For us, the most terrible iron is not missiles, aircraft and tanks, but shackles,” he said.
In its evening update, Ukraine’s army high command said Russian air and missile strikes on military and civilian targets alike continued through Wednesday. “Today was rich with air raid sirens,” it said in a note without giving further details.
Ukrainian forces shot down a Russian drone in the Vinnytsia region while multiple Russian missiles landed in the Khmelnytskyi area, regional authorities said — both west of Kyiv and hundreds of kilometres from front lines.
No damage or casualties were reported, and Reuters could not verify the accounts.
Russia has repeatedly denied its forces are aiming at civilian targets. Russian defence minister Sergei Shoigu told a meeting in Uzbekistan that Moscow had deliberately slowed down what it refers to as its “special military operation” in Ukraine to avoid civilian casualties.
At a UN security council session on Wednesday, Russian ambassador Vassily Nebenzia reiterated Moscow’s rationale for its actions in Ukraine, saying a “special operation” to remove “obvious” security threats to Russia.
Moscow’s stance has been dismissed by Ukraine and the West as a baseless pretext for an imperialist war of conquest.
Western support
Russia has made few advances in recent months after its troops were repelled from Kyiv in the early weeks of the war.
Ukraine’s top military intelligence official, Kyrylo Budanov, said on Wednesday Russia’s offensive was slowing because of moral and physical fatigue in its ranks and Moscow's “exhausted” resource base.
On the eastern front lines of Ukrainian resistance and in shattered cities, some with deserted streets under curfew, combatants and civilians marked the holiday with words of resolve and the promise of victory.
Ukraine declared independence from the disintegrating Soviet Union in August 1991, and its population voted overwhelmingly for independence in a referendum that December.
Russian forces have seized areas of the south including on the Black Sea and Sea of Azov coasts and large tracts of Luhansk and Donetsk provinces that comprise the eastern Donbas region.
The war has killed thousands of civilians, forced more than a third of Ukraine’s 41-million people from their homes, left cities in ruins and shaken the global economy, creating shortages of essential food grains and pushing up energy prices.
Reuters
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