Fear of a major offensive hung over eastern Ukraine. It materialized on Friday with the strike of a missile on the station of Kramatorsk, in the Donbass, having killed 52 people who tried to flee. And this, less than a week after the discovery of the Boutcha massacre, where senior European officials went.
Posted yesterday at 11:56 p.m.
On Wednesday, Kyiv had launched a clear appeal to the inhabitants of eastern Ukraine: evacuate now, under penalty of “risking death”.
Two days later, at least 52 people, including 5 children, died in the bombing of the crowded train station in Kramatorsk, Donbass. Where, for days, hundreds of civilians had been gathering to flee the region, after the warning of the Ukrainian government.
The images of bodies lying on the ground, abandoned suitcases and the blood-stained forecourt sparked a new wave of indignation. At Agence France-Presse, a woman, in shock, recounted a horror scene.
“I heard like a double explosion, I rushed against the wall to protect myself. I then saw people bleeding into the station, bodies all over the ground, I don’t know if they were injured or dead. The soldiers rushed to tell us to evacuate the station, I left everything here,” she reports.
Since the retreat of Kremlin forces from the north of the country, residents of eastern Ukraine have been holding their breath, fearing a Russian offensive. After failing to take Kyiv, Russia is now focusing on the separatist areas of Donbass, the Pentagon believes.
Dozens of civilians lined up outside Kramatorsk station an hour before it was shelled, an AFP journalist reported on the spot.
PHOTO FADEL SENNA, AGENCE FRANCE PRESSE
Scene of devastation near Kramatorsk station on Friday
The corpses of victims of all ages had been gathered in a corner. “I’m looking for my husband, he was there, I can’t reach him,” sobbed a woman, hesitating to approach the bodies.
Not far from the impact of the strike, Ukrainian soldiers found the remains of a missile on which was written in Russian “For our children”, an expression used by the pro-Russian separatists to justify their actions, in reference to their children killed since the start of the Donbass war in 2014.
A “strong global response”
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has slammed Russia’s “inhumane” methods, adding the new strike to the list of war crimes he accuses the Kremlin of. “Without the strength and courage to face us on the battlefield, they cynically annihilate the civilian population. It is evil without limit,” he said on Telegram.
Volodymyr Zelensky called for a “strong global response” after Friday’s deadly shelling in Kramatorsk. “This is another Russian war crime for which everyone involved will be held accountable,” Zelensky said in a video message.
French head of state Emmanuel Macron denounced an “abominable” attack, with his foreign minister Jean-Yves Le Drian even calling it a “crime against humanity”.
United States President Joe Biden decried “another gruesome atrocity by Russia” targeting civilians “attempting to evacuate to safety” on Twitter.
Moscow immediately blamed the strike on Kramatorsk, saying it did not have the type of missile used, and accusing Kyiv of having “orchestrated” the attack to “prevent the departure of the population of the city in order to be able to use as a human shield.
The strike on the Donbass does not bode well for the south of the country, also a priority of the Kremlin. A curfew is in effect until Monday morning in Odessa, a key city on the Black Sea coast, in the face of the threat of an offensive, local authorities said.
Ukraine “towards a European future”
The attack in Donbass comes less than a week after the withdrawal of Russian troops from the north of the country, exposing in broad daylight the devastation sown in its localities, including Boutcha, where dozens of corpses of people wearing civilian clothes were discovered.
PHOTO SERGEI SUPINSKY, AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen (centre) and European Union Foreign Minister Josep Borrell (to her left) visit Boutcha on Friday
On a visit to Ukraine, the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, and the head of diplomacy of the European Union, Josep Borrell, both went to Boutcha, a symbol of Russian barbarism, on Friday.
“Russia will sink into economic, financial and technological decay, while Ukraine is marching towards a European future,” said Mr.me von der Leyen on his return to the capital, at a press conference with Mr Zelensky, calling the attack on Kramatorsk station “despicable”.
“We share the same values and it is for them that we are fighting,” replied the Ukrainian president.
War crimes
As the atrocities in Ukraine come to light, accusations of war crimes rain down on Russia.
Ukraine’s security service has intercepted communications from Russian troops that provide evidence of war crimes, Volodymyr Zelensky said on Friday.
There are soldiers talking with their parents about what they stole and who they kidnapped. There are records of POWs admitting to killing people.
Volodymyr Zelensky, President of Ukraine, in an excerpt from an interview with CBS
France said on Friday it had “sent gendarmes and magistrates in cooperation to help […] to collect evidence of the guilt of Russian soldiers and [établir] the identity of these Russian soldiers”, with a view to a possible trial.
In Canada, voices are rising to demand an urgent investigation into whether Russia is committing genocide, as the RCMP has launched a national investigation into alleged war crimes in Ukraine.
More than a week has passed since the last session of talks between Russia and Ukraine, and no progress can be reported on the ground yet. The two countries would still “agree” to meet for negotiations in Turkey despite recent abuses by the Russian regime, a senior Turkish official said on Friday.
With Agence France-Presse, The Associated Press and The Canadian Press