Attack on Kramatorsk train station: dozens of fugitives killed

Thousands of civilians waited at Kramatorsk train station to flee eastern Ukraine. Then two rockets hit. In the meantime, 50 deaths have been reported and there are numerous injuries. The international horror is great.

The missile attack on the Kramatorsk train station came in the morning when thousands of people were waiting there hoping to be evacuated. The extent of the destruction is now becoming clearer. According to official information, the number of dead rose to 50. Among them were five children, said the governor of the Donetsk region, Pavlo Kyrylenko, according to the “strana.news” portal. In addition, 98 people were injured, including 16 children.

Pictures show the dead covered with towels on the forecourt of the station, several parked cars have burned out. The words “For the children” in Russian can be read on the remains of a rocket.

4000 people are said to have been at the station

About 4,000 people stayed at the station, said Mayor Olexander Honcharenko. Most of them were women and children. In view of an expected Russian offensive, the Ukrainian authorities had called on the population of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions to flee. Kramatorsk is controlled by Ukrainian troops but is considered a Russian target.

The aid organization Doctors Without Borders was appalled. On the days before the attack, patients were evacuated from there with an ambulance train, Doctors Without Borders said in Berlin. “We saw hundreds of people crowded into the station trying to escape,” said emergency coordinator Christopher Stokes from the scene. It is now doubtful whether the relief organization can return for further evacuations.

Zelenskyj: “An evil that knows no bounds”

Ukraine’s governor Kyrylenko accused Russia of deliberately targeting civilians. “They wanted to take as many peaceful people hostage as possible, they wanted to destroy everything Ukrainian,” he wrote on Telegram.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy wrote on Instagram: “Since they (Note d. Red. the Russians) lacking the strength and courage to stand up to us on the battlefield, they cynically destroy the civilian population. This is an evil that knows no bounds. And if it’s not punished, it will never stop.”

“These people were just waiting to be evacuated,” said Prosecutor General Iryna Venediktova. None of the dead is Russian.

Russia denies allegations

The Kremlin denied responsibility for the attack. “Our armed forces do not use this type of missile,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said, according to Russian agencies. He referred to the type “Totschka-U” presumably used. Military experts doubt this account. The day before, investigative reporters reported that Russian troops stationed in Belarus had received several Tochka-U. Tochka-U were used in a joint exercise by Russian and Belarusian troops. The missiles are believed to be less accurate than the Iskanders, which Russia has frequently used. Tochka-U can transport banned cluster munitions – the Ukrainians say this was the case in Kramatorsk.

The separatists, who claim the entire Donetsk region, blamed Ukraine. They keep claiming that Ukrainian “nationalists” are using the civilian population as shields and preventing their evacuation. They provide no evidence of this.

Borrell and Johnson condemn attack

The attack also triggered sharp reactions internationally. EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell wrote on Twitter that it was “another attempt to block the escape routes for those fleeing this unjustified war and to cause human suffering.” He accused Russia of making people suffer with the arbitrary attack.

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said “it is a war crime to indiscriminately attack civilians.” At a joint press conference with Chancellor Olaf Scholz in London, Johnson said Britain would send another £100 million worth of weapons to Ukraine. Scholz had traveled to the British capital for his inaugural visit. The British Prime Minister stressed that Germany and the UK are working closely together to support Ukraine with arms and other aid.

Donbass in focus

The attack on Kramatorsk draws even more attention to the Donbass. Russia had announced that it would focus its attacks on the region, which is probably why it withdrew its troops from northern Ukraine. According to Western military experts, the attack on Kyiv had failed there. The Kremlin, on the other hand, calls the withdrawal a “sign of good will” to create confidence for negotiations.

But the fighting in eastern Ukraine continues. “We feel the end of preparations for this big fight that we will have in Luhansk and Donetsk regions,” said Luhansk Governor Serhiy Hajday. Ukraine is also strengthening its positions. Since the beginning of the war, the most experienced troops who have faced the separatists in recent years have been fighting on the eastern front.

Many bodies recovered in Borodyanka

Zelenskyj is meanwhile assuming further atrocities by Russian troops in Ukraine. In the small town of Borodjanka near Kyiv, where clean-up work was underway and rescue workers removed rubble, it was “much more terrible” than in Bucha, he said in a video message. He did not give specific details.

In Borodyanka, 26 bodies were recovered from the rubble of two bombed-out houses alone, said Prosecutor General Iryna Venediktova. It is currently difficult to estimate how many victims there were in total.

According to the mayor, 700 people have now been killed in the city of Chernihiv, which has also been fought over for a long time. Among the dead were both members of the army and civilians, Wladyslaw Atroschenk told the Unian news agency. Two thirds of the former 300,000 inhabitants of the city north of the capital Kyiv have fled.