War in Ukraine: at least 35 dead and 100 injured in the attack on the station of Kramatorsk

Hundreds of people wanting to flee the region were waiting for a train. The head of the Ukrainian railway company Ukrzaliznytsia denounced a deliberate strike.

 

At least 35 people were killed and 100 injured on Friday 8 April after two rockets hit the Kramatorsk railway station in eastern Ukraine, through which thousands of people have been evacuated for several days.

 

A humanitarian volunteer helping to evacuate the bodies told AFP that at least 35 people had died. An AFP reporter saw the bodies, in body bags and under tarpaulins, of at least 20 people. Present on the spot earlier, he had noted that hundreds of people were still hoping to find a train to leave the city, under threat of a major Russian offensive.

 

The head of the Ukrainian railway company Ukrzaliznytsia, Oleksandre Kamychin, mentioned 30 dead and more than 100 injured, denouncing on his Telegram channel a deliberate strike. Four cars were burned in front of the station. The interior and the entrance of the station were covered with blood, long traces extending in places on the sidewalk and rows of benches were charred. On the square in front of the station, the remains of a missile were still visible, on which one could read in Russian For our children.

 

Abandoned luggage and countless pieces of debris and broken glass also littered the square and the area around the station. The bodies, left in front of small stores adjacent to the station, were then evacuated in army trucks, according to the AFP correspondent. Two rockets fell on the station of Kramatorsk, had initially announced the Ukrainian railway company.

 

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky denounced a limitless evil unleashed by Russia. Without the strength and courage to confront us on the battlefield, they cynically destroy the civilian population. This is an evil that has no limits. And if it is not punished, it will never stop, Volodymyr Zelensky wrote on Telegram, denouncing the inhumane methods of Russian forces. 

 

The head of the European Union's diplomacy also strongly condemned the attack, accusing Russia of causing human suffering. I strongly condemn this morning's indiscriminate attack on a train station in #Kramatorsk by Russia, which killed dozens of people and injured many, Josep Borrell said on Twitter. This is a new attempt to close evacuation routes for those fleeing this unjustified war and cause human suffering, he denounced.

 

For its part, the Russian military denied any missile strike on the Kramatorsk railway station in eastern Ukraine, denouncing a provocation by Kiev forces. All statements of representatives of the nationalist regime in Kiev about the fact that Russia conducted a missile attack on the railway station in Kramatorsk are a provocation and do not correspond to the truth, said the Ministry of Defense, even claiming that only the Ukrainian armed forces use this type of missile Totchka-U.