MoD: Russian Iskander Missile Hits Railway Station, Eliminating 200 Ukrainian Troops

The Russian Ministry of Defense (MoD) stated on Thursday that a Russian Iskander missile had hit a railway station in eastern Ukraine’s Dnepropetrovsk region, eliminating 200 Ukrainian troops.

Russian MoD spokesman Igor Konashenkov told reporters that “as a result of a direct strike by an Iskander missile on a military echelon at the Chaplino railway station in the Dnepropetrovsk region, more than 200 Armed Forces of Ukraine reservists and 10 units of military equipment were destroyed as they were on their way to the combat zone in Donbass.”

He added that a separate "high-precision strike by the Russian Aerospace Forces near the Novy Bug settlement in the Nikolayev region destroyed a command post of the Kakhovka grouping of Ukrainian troops.” As a result, 64 Ukrainian soldiers were killed, according to Konashenkov.

The developments come after Reuters cited Kiev officials as arguing earlier on Thursday that 25 civilians were purportedly killed in a Russian missile strike on a railway station in eastern Ukraine.

Russia's Special Operation in Ukraine

Russian MoD: Ukrainian Training Base for Foreign Mercs Destroyed in Iskander Missile Strike - Video

25 March 2022, 06:13 GMT

Russia has been conducting a special operation to demilitarize and de-Nazify Ukraine since February 24, which was announced by Russian President Vladimir Putin following requests from the Donbass republics to protect them from Kiev. According to the Russian MoD, the operation only aims to target Ukraine’s military infrastructure with high-precision weapons.

In one of the latest developments, Russia’s Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said on Thursday that slowing down the pace of the Russian forces’ offensive during a special military operation in Ukraine is a conscious decision aimed at minimizing civilian casualties.

“Throughout the special operation, we have strictly observed the norms of humanitarian law. Strikes are carried out with high-precision weapons on objects of the military infrastructure of the Ukrainian Armed Forces - control points, airfields, warehouses, fortified areas, objects of the military-industrial complex. At the same time, everything is being done to avoid civilian casualties. Of course, this slows down the pace of the offensive, but we are doing it consciously,” Shoigu said.

He also underscored that the Russian military “organized systematic work on establishing peaceful life in the liberated territories.”

Iskander is a mobile ballistic missile system designed to destroy a variety of ground targets at a range of up to 500km (more than 300 miles).