DISINFO: Russia destroyed the echelons of military equipment in Chaplyne railway station
SUMMARY
Unharmed Russian Iskanders reached the target in the Dnepropetrovsk region. There, at the Chaplyne railway station, echelons of military equipment and manpower of the enemy were destroyed. The footage clearly shows the train with cargo of military equipment. As a result of the hit by Iskanders', more than 200 Ukrainian Armed Forces soldiers who were heading to the combat zone in the Donbas were eliminated.
RESPONSE
The claim is part of an ongoing pro-Kremlin disinformation campaign concerning Russia’s unjustified invasion of Ukraine.
On 24th August 2022, Ukraine's independence day, a Russian rocket strike hit a Ukrainian railway station in Chaplyne. 25 civilians were killed, including two children, and 31 were injured, including four children, as a result of Russia's missile strike. One of the wounded is a 13-year-old boy, who, along with his mother and 11-year-old brother, were buried in a building destroyed by the attack. It was not possible to save the 11-year-old boy. Two private houses were also destroyed and about 30 buildings were damaged. See footage by Reuters with comments from Radio Liberty's Ukrainian service.
The EU strongly condemned the attack by Russia on civilians with HR VP Josep Borrell stating that those responsible for Russian rocket terror will be held accountable.
US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken said that "Russia’s missile strike on a train station full of civilians in Ukraine fits a pattern of atrocities".
Russian opposition Conflict Intelligence Team's analyst Ruslan Leviev called the strike a "war crime".
Russian officials deny targeting a single civilian during the invasion of Ukraine calling it a "special military operation" and claims that all the videos proving the contrary are "staged" and that Ukraine kills its citizens itself.
According to the UN on August 22, 5587 Ukrainian civilians were killed, including 362 children, 7890 people were injured since the start of the invasion on February 24, 2022. According to the UN, the real number of victims could be much higher.
See more disinformation cases on the invasion of Ukraine.