Ukraine claims 50 people were murdered in rocket attack on rail evacuation hub

According to Ukraine, up to 50 people were murdered, including five children, and many more were injured or lost limbs in a rocket attack on a railway station filled with civilians fleeing the possibility of a major Russian onslaught in the country’s east.

While regional officials hurried to get civilians out of harm’s way, a group of European Union leaders visited Kyiv to offer President Volodymyr Zelenskiy their support and reassure him that Ukraine will have a road to EU membership.

Zelenskiy described the attack on the station in Kramatorsk, Donetsk region’s eastern sector, as a planned attack on civilians.

Regional governor Pavlo Kyrylenko raised the death toll from 39 to 50 after some of the several dozen injured died after being brought to hospitals or medical institutions.

According to him, the station was attacked by a Tochka U short-range ballistic missile containing cluster munitions, which detonate in mid-air, dispersing small fatal bomblets across a larger area.
‘They wanted to instil fear and panic, and they wanted to take as many civilians as possible,’ he explained.

Reuters was unable to confirm what occurred in Kramatorsk.

Cluster weapons are prohibited under a 2008 accord. Although Russia has not signed the agreement, it has repeatedly denied employing such weapons in Ukraine.

According to the Russian defence ministry, the missiles reported to have targeted the station were exclusively utilised by Ukraine’s military, and Russia’s armed forces had no targets allocated in Kramatorsk on Friday.
According to Zelenskiy, there were no Ukrainian troops at the station. ‘Russian forces (fired) on an ordinary railway station, on regular people, there were no soldiers there,’ he said in a video speech to Finland’s parliament.

According to Kramatorsk Mayor Oleksander Honcharenko, around 4,000 people were present at the station at the time of the incident.

‘Some people have lost a limb, while others have lost an arm. They are now obtaining medical treatment. Approximately 40 surgeries are being performed at the same time in the hospitals,’ in an online briefing, the mayor stated.