UKRAINE, BALAKLIIA, Apr 26 — Around 4:40 p.m. on April 25, the Russian army attacked a railway station in Balakliia in Kharkiv oblast, injuring ten people, reports the governor Oleh Syniehubov. The type of missile is still being determined. 

Russian attack on Balakliia wounded five women and five men. Syniehubov reported that when the missile hit, seven of those victims were in the train cars of the Balakliia-Izium train that was at the station. They got explosive injuries and were hospitalized. The train was also damaged in a blast wave. 

Balakliia had a population of 26,334 before the full-scale invasion. The Russian army occupied Balakliia in March 2022, and Ukrainian troops liberated it during the Kharkiv counteroffensive on September 10, 2022. The city has an important railway junction for the region. 

The Prosecutor’s Office opened a pre-trial investigation into Russia violating laws and customs of war with this attack. 

The missile hit near the station’s building, blew off the windows in the station, and damaged its roof.

On April 25, Russia also attacked a logistics and railway connection junction in Smila, Cherkasy Oblast, injuring six people. On April 19, they hit near Dnipro’s railway station and attacked other objects of critical infrastructure in the Dnipropetrovsk Oblast. 

The Institute for the Study of War (ISW) assesses that Russian attacks may shift towards striking Ukraine’s transportation infrastructure to disrupt the arrival of US military aid and limit Ukraine’s ability to distribute “manpower and material to critical sectors of the frontline.” 

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