A “evil without limit” according to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, a “awful atrocity” committed by Moscow for US President Joe Biden, a “crime against humanity” according to French diplomacy: the Kramatorsk massacre, in eastern Ukraine, sparked a wave of Western condemnations on Friday 8 April. At least 50 people, including five children, were killed in a missile strike on the station, in full evacuation of civilians. Moscow has denied any responsibility. Here’s what to remember from the day.
At least 50 dead in missile strike on Kramatorsk station
The missile fell around 10:30 a.m. (9:30 a.m. Paris time), at a time when candidates for evacuation have been gathering for days by the hundreds in the city’s train station to flee Donbass, now a priority objective of the Russian army. “Fifty dead, including five children”wrote on the Telegram messenger the regional governor Pavlo Kyrylenko, specifying that 38 people died on the spot and 12 in the hospital, out of 98 people hospitalized in total.
Moscow immediately denied being responsible, claiming not to have the type of missile that would have been used and denouncing a “provocation” Ukrainian.
Emmanuel Macron wants to “gather the evidence” against “Russian war crimes”
“Even taking the maximum precautions that I have to take” as head of state, “I can say that these are Russian war crimes” in Ukraine, where abuses against civilians have been attributed to Russiasaid Emmanuel Macron on the social network Brut. “I want us to collect the evidence. (…) And so, we sent gendarmes and magistrates in cooperation to help (…) to collect evidence of the guilt of Russian soldiers and the identity of those Russian soldiers”added the French president.
The President of the European Commission in kyiv and Boutcha
Russia is threatened with “decomposition” because of ever tougher sanctions, while Ukraine has a “European future”declared Ursula von der Leyen, the President of the European Commission, during a visit to kyiv.
Accompanied by Josep Borrell and Slovak Prime Minister Edouard Heger, Ursula von der Leyen also visited Boutcha, which has become a symbol of the atrocities of the war in Ukraine. The three leaders went to see the mass graves dug in this locality to bury the dozens of civilians killed since the beginning of the Russian invasion.
Putin’s two daughters sanctioned by EU
The Europeans have sanctioned Vladimir Putin’s two daughters, now blacklisted by the European Union, along with more than 200 other people, including several oligarchs close to the Russian president and pro-Kremlin media bosses. Already targeted by Washington and London, Maria Vorontsova and Katerina Tikhonova, born in 1985 and 1986 respectively, are the daughters of Vladimir Putin and Lioudmila Putina, from whom the Russian president announced that he had divorced in 2013.
The eldest, Maria Vorontsova, is being targeted for her role in Nomenko, a major healthcare investment project company that provides “substantial sources of income” to the Russian government, says the EU’s official journal. His sister, Katerina Tikhonova, runs a support fund for young scientists created by companies whose leaders “are members of the inner circle of oligarchs” of the Russian president, according to the same source.
Odessa curfew amid threat of missile attack
A curfew will be in effect from Saturday evening to Monday morning in Odessa, the major Ukrainian port on the Black Sea, local authorities announced. After the bombing of the Kramatorsk train station in eastern Ukraine, which killed at least 50 people, “a threat of missile attack looms over Odessa, April 10, 2022. Therefore, a curfew is imposed in Odessa and its region from 9 p.m. on April 9 until 6 a.m. on April 11, 2022 “announced the regional military administration.