Russia attacked railway facilities in three different regions of Ukraine on Thursday evening and Friday morning, as the country’s defense minister vowed to step up strikes aimed at slowing the flow of US weapons and equipment essential towards the front.
At least 31 civilians were injured and six killed in the attacks, according to the Ukrainian military and local officials. Three of the dead were railway workers killed during a strike in the Donetsk region. In Balakliya, a railway hub in the Kharkiv region, 13 passengers on a regional train were injured when a missile hit the station. Russia also attacked a railway facility in the Cherkasy region, but no casualties were reported.
Ukraine’s railways, with around 20,000 kilometers of track and 230,000 employees, played a crucial role in the war, evacuating civilians from front-line areas, transporting everything from grain to humanitarian aid, across the country and carefully moving heavy weapons supplied by Western allies. guarded and hidden supply lines.
The latest attacks on the railway network came after Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu promised to target Western weapons as soon as they arrived in Ukraine. “We will increase the intensity of strikes against Western logistics centers and weapons storage bases,” he said in a speech to the ministry on Tuesday.
In a speech in Berlin welcoming recent announcements of new aid from the United States and other allies of Ukraine, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg stressed the need for rapid action : “It is now our responsibility to transform these commitments into real aid deliveries. weapons and ammunition. And to do it quickly,” he added.
Ukrainian forces hope to see new weapons supplies arrive at the front lines as soon as possible as they are engaged in violent clashes and struggling to maintain their defensive lines in several places. Russian forces have taken a series of villages west of Avdiivka in the Donetsk region, but their next big objective in that direction, the town of Pokrovsk, is still 30 kilometers away.
The pressure on Chasiv Yar, a small strategically located town, is greater. In March, Russia stepped up efforts to capture the town, perched on a hill about eight kilometers west of Bakhmut. His forces have reached the eastern outskirts. Capturing the city would help Russia launch new offensive operations against major cities, such as Kostyantynivka, Kramatorsk and Sloviansk, the main population centers in the Ukrainian part of the Donbass region.
Meanwhile, in the northeastern regions of Kharkiv and Sumy, near the Russian border, guided air attacks hit two villages on Friday morning, killing a woman and injuring several other people, including at least three children, according to authorities. local and media.
The toll on children in Ukraine continues to rise. According to UNICEF, the number of children killed in attacks in Ukraine has increased by almost 40 percent this year compared to last year.
The attacks between January 1 and March 31 resulted in the deaths of 25 children, according to data verified by the United Nations, with the youngest just two months old. Nine children were reported killed in attacks in the first three weeks of April.
