At least 50 people were killed and nearly 100 wounded in a rocket attack on the Kramatorsk station in eastern Ukraine, where hundreds of people were waiting for a train to leave the region besieged by Russian forces, amid cross accusations. between kyiv and Moscow on the authorship of the act.
“Fifty dead, including five children. This is the current death toll from the shelling carried out by the Russian occupation troops in Kramatorsk,” the governor of the Donetsk region wrote on Telegram.Pavlo Kyrylenko.
He also estimated that the number of victims could increase, since there are 98 people injured, including 16 children, all of whom were preparing to board a train to go to a safer place.
cross accusations
the ukrainian president, Volodimir Zelensky called the act “unlimited evil” by Russia, while the Kremlin blamed kyiv for the attack.which would be the deadliest since the invasion began six weeks ago.
The incident was first communicated by the person in charge of the railway station, Oleksander Kamishin, and by an authority in the Donetsk area -where Kramatorsk is located- that is not in the power of Russia, and led to emphatic condemnations from Zelensky himself, from the Union Union (EU) and the White House.
“Since they do not have the strength or courage to confront us on the battlefield, they cynically destroy the civilian population. It is an evil without limits. And if it is not punished, it will never stop,” the Ukrainian president said on Telegram. and denounced the “inhumane” methods of the Russian forces.
The Russian Defense Ministry stated that it did not launch an attack against the station and stated that “it was orchestrated by the kyiv regime by preventing the civilian population from leaving the city in order to use it as a human shield.”according to a statement quoted by the AFP news agency .
The president of the United States, Joe Biden, accused Russia of having committed a “horrible atrocity”, while the head of French diplomacy, Jean-Yves Le Drian, assured that it constitutes a “crime against humanity”.
Ukraine accused Russia of firing a missile at civilians in an attack that left at least 50 dead. pic.twitter.com/Md4lXWzNST
—Telam Agency (@TelamAgency) April 8, 2022
The stage at the station
A reporter from the AFP news agency who went to the station saw hundreds of people waiting for a train to leave the region, threatened by a major Russian offensive, towards safer parts of the country.
Several charred cars and the remains of a missile were visible in front of the Kramatorsk station. The place was littered with abandoned suitcases, broken glass and debris. The interior of the station was covered in blood, often trampled and spread out into the street, due to the movement of bodies, the French agency reported.
This attack occurs when Western powers announced new sanctions against Moscow, after denouncing it for committing a mass murder of civilians in Bucha, a city neighboring kyiv, an accusation that the Kremlin denies.
Research
Investigators began exhuming bodies from mass graves to determine if they were victims of war crimes.
The president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, and the head of European diplomacy, Josep Borrell, went to that town, located northwest of the capital, before a meeting they held with Zelensky in kyiv.
Russian forces have already withdrawn from the capital and other towns in the north of the country such as Chernigov, where 700 civilians have died since the invasion according to its mayor, to concentrate their operations in the east and south of Ukraine.
The strategy seems to aim at creating territorial continuity between the Crimean peninsula, occupied and annexed in 2014 by Russia, and the pro-Russian separatist provinces of Donetsk and Lugansk, in the Ukrainian Donbass.
Ukrainian authorities are urging citizens to evacuate from areas where fighting is expected to increase, although in many cases the exodus is obstructed by shelling.
Another hot spot in the conflict is Mariupol, a city in the southeast that has been besieged for weeks by Russian forces, where the pro-Russian official proclaimed as the new “mayor” acknowledged the death of 5,000 civilians.
After being suspended from the UN Human Rights Council, Russia continued to be targeted by sanctions.
The United Kingdom announced measures against the daughters of Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Foreign Minister, Serguei Lavrov, in a desire to attack the “lavish lifestyle of the circle close to the Kremlin”, in addition to reporting the shipment of more anti-tank missiles and anti-aircraft to Ukraine.
The EU, which launched an embargo on Russian coal imports and prohibited the entry of Russian ships to its ports, announced that it will increase aid to Ukraine by 500 million dollars and added to the sanctions against Putin’s two adult daughters.
The UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) announced that world food prices reached “an unprecedented level” in March due to the war, seriously affecting trade in cereals and vegetable oils.
Meanwhile, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) warned that in just six weeks the conflict has already left more than 4.3 million refugees and 7.1 million internally displaced persons, which constitutes one of the humanitarian crises “fastest growing in history”.
The War: day 44
The following is a review of the central events of the day:
-Some 50 people were killed and nearly 100 wounded in a rocket attack on the Kramatorsk station in eastern Ukraine. Hundreds of people were waiting there for a train to leave the region. It is discounted that the number of fatalities may rise.
kyiv and Moscow exchanged accusations about the authorship of the act.
Ukrainian President Volodimir Zelensky called the act “unrestrained evil” by Russia, while the Kremlin preferred to blame kyiv for the attack, the deadliest since the invasion began six weeks ago.
-The president of the United States, Joe Biden, accused Russia of having committed a “horrible atrocity, affecting civilians who were trying to get out and get to safety” and his counterpart from France, Emmanuel Macron, described the attack against “horrible” families who were about to leave and experienced the horror.
-Ukrainian investigators began exhuming bodies from mass graves in Bucha to determine if they were victims of war crimes.
-The president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, and the head of European diplomacy, Josep Borrell, arrived in that city before meeting with Zelenski in kyiv.
-The United Kingdom announced measures against the daughters of Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Foreign Minister, Sergei Lavrov, and the sending of more anti-tank and anti-aircraft missiles to Ukraine.
-The EU also sanctioned Putin’s daughters and announced that it will increase aid to Ukraine by 500 million dollars.
-The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) warned that in six weeks the conflict has left more than 4.3 million refugees and 7.1 million internally displaced persons.
– Zelenski spoke before the Parliament of Finland, where he affirmed that his country cannot wait any longer to receive new weapons from the western powers, to which he asked for “powerful” sanctions against Russia.
“We need the type of weapons that some of our partners in the European Union have,” the president reaffirmed.
-The Central Bank of Russia cut its reference interest rates from 20% to 17%, seeking to mitigate the effects of the war on its economy. The interest rate cut represents the largest single cut in more than two decades.
