At least 39 people, including four children, were killed in a missile attack on Friday, April 8, on a train station in Donbass where civilians were rushing to flee eastern Ukraine, the target of Russian forces. “Russian fascists shelled Kramatorsk station, [faisant] 39 dead including four children”wrote on Facebook the spokesperson for the Ukrainian security services (SBU), Artyom Dekhtiarenko.
Kramatorsk is the “capital” of the part of Donbass under Ukrainian control. Abandoned suitcases littered the platforms and the surroundings of the station, the sidewalks were stained with traces of blood. On the forecourt of the building, one could see the remains of a missile on which was written in Russian: “For the children”.
President Volodymyr Zelensky denounced a “evil without limits” unleashed by Russia and methods “inhuman”. “Without the strength and the courage to face us on the battlefield, they cynically annihilate the civilian population. It is an evil that has no limits. And if it is not punished, it will not will never stop“, he wrote on Telegram.
EU Foreign Minister Josep Borrell, on his way to Kyiv with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, has “strongly condemned” a “blind attack”.
Moscow immediately denied being responsible for the strike, saying it did not have the type of missile that was allegedly used and denouncing a “provocation” Ukrainian. An argument already used to deny the accusations of atrocities and war crimes, especially in Boutcha.
After withdrawing its troops from the kyiv region and northern Ukraine, Russia has made the conquest of Donbass, part of which has been controlled since 2014 by pro-Russian separatists, its priority objective. It multiplies its attacks in the South and the East, the Ukrainian authorities striving to evacuate the civilians.