Ukrainian train station body count rises in aftermath of Russian missile attack

Two Russian rockets struck a train station in the city of Kramatorsk in eastern Ukraine on Friday, killing at least 50 people and injuring over 100, regional authorities said.

Around 4,000 civilians, including women and children, were in the vicinity of the station at the time of the attack because it was being used as an evacuation route to take people to “safer regions of Ukraine,” said the office of Ukraine’s prosecutor-general and the regional governor.

russians carried out two missile stikes on railway station in Kramatorsk, where evacuation of civillians was taking place. But russian war criminals not only deliberately targeted thousands of people; they've used cluster munitions.
More than 30 killed
More that 100 injured pic.twitter.com/oj9zMCdIlz

— Defence of Ukraine (@DefenceU) April 8, 2022

The attack left at least 50 people dead, including five children. Thirty-eight individuals died at the scene, while 12 others died in the hospital, said Donetsk Oblast Governor Pavlo Kyrylenko. Hundreds more were wounded, including 16 children, 46 women, and 36 men. Authorities expect both numbers to increase with time. 

Kramatorsk mayor Oleksandr Goncharenko said that around 40 surgeons were treating the victims of the attack. However, hospitals were unable to cope as the numbers of those seeking help keeps increasing, he added.

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba called the attack a “deliberate slaughter” by Russian forces and shared pictures on Twitter showing the aftermath of the attack.

Russians knew that the train station in Kramatorsk was full of civilians waiting to be evacuated. Yet they stroke it with a ballistic missile, killing at least 30 and injuring at least a hundred people. This was a deliberate slaughter. We will bring each war criminal to justice. pic.twitter.com/cq0CX9wovV

— Dmytro Kuleba (@DmytroKuleba) April 8, 2022

Pictures shared on social media also show what is left of a Russian rocket near the entrance of the train station with the words “for our children” painted in Russian on its side.

The missile that landed in Kramatorsk railway station had the words за детей “for the children” written on side. Messed up and likely indicative of parallel reality Russian propaganda is creating. pic.twitter.com/E21DQKv7bX

— Oliver Carroll (@olliecarroll) April 8, 2022

Ukraine’s state-owned railway company said the attack was "a purposeful strike on the passenger infrastructure of the railway and the residents of the city of Kramatorsk.”

A video shared on social earlier during the day shows thousands of people gathered outside of the station, waiting for their turn to evacuate the city. A similar number of people were at the train station at the time of the attack.

Video from #Kramatorsk train station. All the people trapped. Now you understand why mothers write contact details on their children’s bodies. pic.twitter.com/XFnIfcVF1B

— Lesia Vasylenko (@lesiavasylenko) April 7, 2022

“Lacking the strength and courage to stand up to us on the battlefield, they are cynically destroying the civilian population. This is an evil that has no limits,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Friday after the attack.

Russian spokesman Dmitry Peskov claimed that Russian forces did not order the attack, claiming that the Kremlin does not use the type of missile that was fired on Kramatorsk—a Tochka-U short-range ballistic missile.

"Our Armed Forces do not use missiles of this type," Peskov said at a press briefing Friday. "No combat tasks were set or planned for today in Kramatorsk."