LAST UPDATE | 25 Aug 2022

RUSSIAN PRESIDENT VLADIMIR Putin signed a decree today to increase the size of Russia’s armed forces from 1.9 million to 2.04 million as the war in Ukraine enters its seventh month.

Putin last set the army headcount in 2017, at around 1.9 million people with 1.01 million soldiers.

Today’s change will include a 137,000 boost in the number of combat personnel to 1.15 million and comes into effect on 1 January.

While the decree does not outline the reasons for the increase, it comes as Moscow’s troops are focused on capturing territories in eastern Ukraine.

Meanwhile the death toll from a Russian strike on a train station in central Ukraine last night has risen to 25 overnight, the state rail operator said today.

The strike targeted a station in the city of Chaplyne in the region of Dnipropetrovsk.

“As of this morning, we have 25 dead, including two children, and 31 people injured, including two children,” Ukrainian Railways said on Telegram.

Russia issued a counter-claim saying it targeted soldiers and killed 200 Ukrainian servicemen in the attack 

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy first announced the strike yesterday evening – as the nation marked the grim milestone of six months of war, and its annual Independence Day.

“Chaplyne is our pain today,” Zelenskyy said.

At least 15 people were killed by #russian attack on the #Chaplyne railway station. At least 50 people are wounded. The missiles hit passenger train.

Photo by dnepr_operativ/Telegram pic.twitter.com/DWxCzEVxyi

— Kira Rudik (@kiraincongress) August 24, 2022

Ahead of Independence Day, Kyiv authorities banned large gatherings in the capital until today for fear of missile strikes.

Residents of the capital, which has been largely spared in recent months, woke up yesterday to air raid sirens, but no immediate strikes followed.

As the day wore on, Russian bombardment was reported in the country’s east, west and central areas, with the most serious attack apparently at the train station.

Since the war started in February, Ukraine’s railways have been vital in the effort to evacuate vast swathes of the country.

In April, a rocket attack on a station in the eastern city of Kramatorsk killed at least 57 civilians as they waited on the platform to be transported west to safety.

Yesterday US President Joe Biden announced that he will be sending $2.98 billion (€3 billion) in new military aid to Ukraine that will enable forces there to fight “for years to come”.

UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson, on a visit to Kyiv yesterday, said the UK “will continue to stand with our Ukrainian friends” as he set out a further £54 million package of military aid.

As the war enters its seventh month most of the fighting between Russia and Ukraine is taking place in the south and east, with neither side conceding much territory.

Nonetheless Kyiv accuses Moscow of regularly striking Ukrainian cities with long-range missiles.

Ukrainian forces appear to also have used cluster munitions several times, Cluster Munition Coalition (CMC), a monitoring group, said in the 2022 report on the use of the weapons around the world.

Neither Russia nor Ukraine have joined the convention prohibiting the use, transfer, production and stockpiling of cluster bombs, which has 110 states parties and 13 other signatories.

“Russia’s extensive use of internationally-banned cluster munitions in Ukraine demonstrates a blatant disregard for human life, humanitarian principles and legal norms,” said Mary Wareham of the Cluster Munition Monitor 2022.

“Unequivocally condemning ongoing use of cluster munitions in Ukraine is crucial to strengthen the stigma against these weapons and bring an end to the threat they pose.”

The 100-page report comes as parties to the convention prepare for their 10th annual meeting from August 30 to September 2 at the United Nations in Geneva.