Russian strike kills over 50 at Ukraine rail station
A rocket strike targeting a train station in the eastern Ukrainian city of Kramatorsk on Friday killed at least 50 people and injured dozens who were attempting to flee amid Russia’s new focus on the region, Ukrainian officials said.
Five children were among those killed, according to Pavlo Kyrylenko, the regional governor of Donetsk. In a telegram post, he said 98 people were taken to the hospital, including 16 children. About 4,000 civilians were inside and around the station when it was hit.
Photos from the scene showed luggage and personal belongings scattered across the platform. Bodies were covered in tarps, surrounded by blood. Photos also showed remnants of a rocket with the words “For the children” painted on it in Russian.
The Russians used an SS-21 short-range ballistic missile in the attack Friday on the train station in the Ukrainian city of Kramatorsk, according to a senior Defense official who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss intelligence assessments.
The official described the station as a major rail hub near in eastern Ukraine in a strategic location. It’s the latest humanitarian catastrophe in the country as the Kremin refocuses its attacks on eastern and southern Ukraine.
The Russian Defense Ministry denied targeting the station in Kramatorsk, a city in part of the Donetsk region that is controlled by the Ukrainian government.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said thousands of people were present in the station, which was being used to evacuate civilians, and called Russia an “evil without limits” that needed to be punished before more civilian attacks.
Global global leaders and groups took to social media to condemn Russia after a rocket strike killed dozens at a train station in eastern Ukraine.
President Zelenskyy denounced the strike and said Ukraine expects a tough global response.
“Like the massacres in Bucha, like many other Russian war crimes, the missile attack on Kramatorsk should be one of the charges at the tribunal that must be held,” he said during his nightly video address to the nation Friday.
The president told Ukrainians that great efforts would be taken “to establish every minute of who did what, who gave what orders, where the missile came from, who transported it, who gave the command and how this strike was agreed,” so that those behind the attack would be held responsible.
The White House similarly condemned the attack and said the U.S. would support efforts to investigate it.
“Where we are now is we’re going to support efforts to investigate the attack as we document Russia’s actions, hold them accountable,” White House press secretary Jen Psaki told reporters, calling the strike “another horrific atrocity.”
Ursula von der Leyen, president of the E.U. Commission, called the attack “despicable.” .
“The missile attack this morning on a train station used for evacuations of civilians in Ukraine is despicable,” von der Leyen said. “I am appalled by the loss of life and I will offer personally my condolences to President Zelensky.”
European Council President Charles Michel echoed that response, noting it was “horrifying” to see Russia strike a station being used by civilians to evacuate. He called for action and noted that additional sanctions and weapons to Ukraine were underway.
UNICEF, which offers humanitarian aid to children in crisis, said it “strongly condemns” the attack and that the “killing of children must stop now.”
“This was a deliberate slaughter,” said Dmytro Kuleba, Ukraine’s minister of foreign affairs. “We will bring each war criminal to justice.”
Russia denied responsibility for the attack, but the denial came too later and after Russian soldiers posted in bragged on social media that they had attacked the station.
Just few minutes before the attack became clear Russian soldiers were bragging about the hit on Telegram.
Following an international outrage, the messages, which included claims to have successfully obliterated “a crowd of Ukrainian militants at the Kramatorsk railway station,” were edited or disappeared altogether, according to several accounts by journalists in the region.