Russia said on Thursday, August 25, 2022, that it had killed more than 200 Ukrainian soldiers in a strike that targeted a railway station in central Ukraine on Wednesday, while Kyiv spoke of at least 25 deaths.

The Russian Ministry of Defense added in a statement that an Iskander missile "directly hit a military train at Chaplyne station in the Dnipropetrovsk region, resulting in the death of more than 200 soldiers from the reserve of the Ukrainian Armed Forces," in addition to the destruction of military equipment.

It confirmed that this train was "on its way to combat zones" in eastern Ukraine, where battles are taking place between Kyiv's forces and Moscow's forces.

Moscow also said it destroyed eight Ukrainian fighter jets in strikes on air bases in the Ukrainian regions of Poltava and Dnipropetrovsk.

Russia launched this missile attack while Ukraine was celebrating its Independence Day.

Ukraine confirmed that among the 25 dead was an 11-year-old boy found under the rubble of a house, and a six-year-old child who died in a car fire caused by a missile near the train station.

The updated toll of yesterday's attack was announced by the Deputy Head of the Ukrainian Presidential Office, Kyrylo Tymoshenko, who explained that 31 people were injured as a result of the attack.

The strike, which targeted the train station in Chaplyne, a town with a population of 3,500 people, occurred in the Dnipropetrovsk region in central Ukraine.

The strike came after warnings issued by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky that Moscow might undertake something "particularly brutal" this week, as Ukraine celebrates its Independence Day and marks six months since the start of the Russian military operation.

Before the attack on the train station, Russia confirmed that it is doing its utmost to avoid civilian casualties, even if that means slowing down its offensive in Ukraine.

Russian Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu said on Wednesday that Russia is carrying out precision strikes against Ukrainian military targets, and that it "is doing everything necessary to avoid civilian casualties," adding: "Certainly this slows the pace of the offensive but we are doing this deliberately."