At least 39 dead as Russia hits railway station in Ukraine's Kramatorsk
Ukrainian servicemen and emergency personnel tend to victims in the aftermath of a rocket attack on the railway station in the eastern city of Kramatorsk, in the Donbass region in eastern Ukraine, on April 8, 2022. (AFP Photo)
by Agencies
Apr 08, 2022 11:24 am


A railway station swarming with refugees and locals in the eastern Ukrainian city of Kramatorsk was targeted in Russian rocket strikes on Friday, with local authorities fearing that dozens have been killed or wounded.

Ukraine's state railway company, Ukrainian Railways, stated that more than 30 people were killed and 100 others were wounded in the attack. The death toll was later revised as 39 with injuries standing at 87, many of them in critical condition, according to Donetsk Governor Pavlo Kyrylenko

The station is used to evacuate civilians from areas under bombardment by Russian forces to safer regions in Ukraine. About 4,000 people, most of them elderly, women and children, were at the station when it was hit by Russian rockets, Kramatorsk Mayor Oleksander Honcharenko said.

Calcinated cars are pictured outside a train station in Kramatorsk, eastern Ukraine, that was being used for civilian evacuations, after it was hit by a rocket attack killing at least 35 people, on April 8, 2022. (AFP Photo)
Ukrainian servicemen check for signs of life among casualties lying on the platform in the aftermath of a rocket attack on the railway station in the eastern city of Kramatorsk, in the Donbass region in eastern Ukraine, on April 8, 2022. (AFP Photo)

Russia's defense ministry said Friday it did not launch an attack on a train station in eastern Ukraine.

"All statements by representatives of the Kyiv nationalist regime about the 'rocket attack' allegedly carried out by Russia on April 8 at the railway station in the city of Kramatorsk are a provocation and are absolutely untrue," the ministry said in a statement.

The defense ministry said the missile was of a type used only by the Ukrainian military, and similar to one that hit the center of the city of Donetsk on March 14, killing 17 people, RIA reported.

Ukrainian police inspect the remains of a large rocket with the words "for our children" in Russian next to the main building of a train station in Kramatorsk, eastern Ukraine, that was being used for civilian evacuations, that was hit by a rocket attack killing at least 35 people, on April 8, 2022. (AFP Photo)
Ukrainian police inspect the remains of a large rocket with the words "for our children" in Russian next to the main building of a train station in Kramatorsk, eastern Ukraine, that was being used for civilian evacuations, that was hit by a rocket attack killing at least 35 people, on April 8, 2022. (AFP Photo)

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, for his part, said that the station was hit by Russian forces using Tochka-U tactical ballistic missiles.

"Lacking the strength and courage to stand up to us on the battlefield, they are cynically destroying the civilian population," Zelenskyy said in a statement. "This is an evil that has no limits. And if it is not punished, it will never stop."

Zelenskyy later said in a video address to Finland's parliament that no Ukrainian troops had been at the station at the time of the attack.

Three trains carrying evacuees were blocked in the same region of Ukraine on Thursday after an airstrike on the line, the only one still under Kyiv's control, according to the head of Ukrainian Railways.

"The enemy carried out strikes on the rail line next to the station in Barbenkovo on the Donetsk line," Ukrainian Railways chief Oleksandr Kamychin had said in a post on the messaging service Telegram.

The line was the "only exit route by rail for cities such as Slavyansk, Kramatorsk and Lyman" in the eastern region still under Ukrainian control, he said, adding that the connection was "a lifeline for tens of thousands of our citizens today."

"We're waiting for the end of the bombardments to clarify the situation. The passengers on these trains have been moved into the station until this is done," he said.

Civilians leaving eastern Ukrainian cities in Donbass region are seen waiting for trains in the railway station in Kramatorsk, April 7, 2022. (AA Photo)

Ukrainian officials say Russian forces have been regrouping for a new offensive and that Moscow plans to seize as much territory as it can in the eastern part of Ukraine known as Donbass bordering Russia.

Local authorities in some areas have been urging civilians to leave while it is still possible and relatively safer.

The Ukrainian governor of the eastern region of Luhansk, Sergiy Gaiday, said Thursday it was the "last chance" to leave as Russia was "trying to cut off all possible ways of getting people out."

Last Update: April 08, 2022 14:22