Russia’s missile attack on fleeing civilians at the train station has been “unscrupulous” and “will not go unpunished,” Boris Johnson said last night, promising £ 100m in new military aid to Ukraine.
At least 50 passengers, including five children, were killed in the attack in Kramatorsk, Donetsk, where the station was used to evacuate civilians from the war-torn east.
According to photos and videos taken afterwards, the missile projectile found at the site was marked “for the children”, which also shows bodies on benches on the platform and bloody items, including toys and a stroller.
President Vladimir Zelensky then described Russia as an “evil without borders.”
Mr Johnson suggested that Vladimir Putin’s invading forces were guilty of a war crime.
“The attack on the railway station in eastern Ukraine shows how deep Putin’s once-vaunted army has sunk,” the prime minister told a news conference on Downing Street with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz on Friday.
“A war crime is the indiscriminate attack on civilians, and Russian crimes in Ukraine will not go unnoticed or unpunished.”
A U.S. defense official said the Pentagon believed Russian forces had used the SS-21 Scarab missile, known as Tochka in the former Soviet Union.
Donetsk Governor Pavlo Kirilenko accused Russian forces of using cluster munitions and said they “know very well where to aim and what they want: they wanted to sow panic and fear, they wanted to take in as many civilians as possible.”
Mr Zelenski also accused Moscow of killing civilians as part of its military strategy.
Alexander Honcharenko, the mayor of Kramatorsk, estimated that about 4,000 people were at the station when the missiles hit.
“Some people have lost a leg, others an arm. They are currently receiving medical treatment. “Hospitals perform about 40 operations at a time,” he told an online briefing.
After the attack, Eduard Basurin, a pro-Russian separatist commander in Donetsk, said Ukraine was responsible for the attack. Russia’s defense ministry later denied responsibility for the missile strike, describing speculations to the contrary as “absolutely untrue.”
Remains of a rocket can be seen in Kramatorsk
(AFP via Getty Images)
Washington condemned the “horrific and devastating images”, while Foreign Secretary Liz Truss said she was “horrified” by the reports, saying the attack on civilians was a war crime. “We will hold Russia and Putin accountable,” she added.
Ukrainian authorities have called on civilians in the east of the country to flee before the projected increase in Russian bombing. The Kremlin has withdrawn its troops from northern Ukraine and is expected to deploy many in the Donbass region, which includes the provinces of Donetsk and Luhansk.
“I am evacuating! The chances of saving yourself and your family from Russian death are decreasing every day,” Luhansk provincial governor Sergei Gaidai said earlier this week.
Three trains carrying evacuees to safety were blocked in eastern Ukraine when the line was hit by air strikes on Thursday.
This map shows the extent of the Russian invasion of Ukraine on April 5
(Images of the press association)
Since Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24, Moscow has repeatedly denied targeting non-combatants. However, the UN estimates that 1,611 Ukrainian civilians have been killed in the conflict so far, noting that the true figure is probably much higher.
Last week, the Ukrainian army captured many cities around Kyiv that were occupied by Russian troops. Three mass graves were found in Bucha, a suburb in the northwestern part of the capital. At least 320 civilians were killed there, according to the mayor.
Mr Johnson said Britain would send £ 100 million to Ukraine, including more Starstreak anti-aircraft missiles, anti-tank weapons and ‘precision munitions’, such as drones capable of spinning in the sky as they aim.
He also praised Germany’s “seismic” efforts to end its dependence on Russian oil and gas supplies. But after revealing that the EU has spent 35 billion euros on Russian hydrocarbons since the invasion began, while sending only 1 billion euros in aid to Ukraine, Mr Scholz acknowledged that the change would take time.
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