Russia is stepping up its attack on civilians in the east by attacking the Kramatorsk train station.

On the floor, corpses, luggage, stroller. Black smoke billows across the sky in the Donetsk region of eastern Ukraine, around the reddish building of the Kramatorsk railway station. A rocket attack on Friday killed at least 50 people, including five children, and injured more than 80, according to Ukrainian authorities, who blamed Russia for trying to flee to Ukraine at an important evacuation point for many civilians. In safe areas of the country. . Moscow once again denies the attack.

The city’s mayor, Alexander Honcharenko, said about 4,000 people were at the station at the time of the attack, most of them women and children. Several witnesses told reporters about it The Washington Post That there were about 1000 people there. From this station, from where trains travel to several cities in western and central Ukraine, civilians are evacuated daily, according to the country’s media.

Images of the scene show the destruction: several bodies dressed in civilian mouths, with at least one reflective vest, and others covered with green tarpaulins worn by the military, traces of blood among personal belongings and rocket remains. “There are a lot of corpses, there are children, there are only children!” – Screaming woman in the scene video. The local hospital is trying to care for many patients.

Regional and national authorities have in recent days called on civilians to leave Donetsk and Lugansk as they prepare for a Russian offensive in the east, where they say Moscow forces will try to take control of both regions. Russia has said it now wants to focus on the “liberation” of Donbass, in the east of the country, which is made up of these regions and is home to Moscow-recognized separatist republics that control part of the territory. Kramatorsk is located in the territory controlled by the Government of Ukraine.

“[Los rusos] “They knew exactly where they were going and what they wanted to do to sow panic and fear. They wanted to bring as many civilians as possible,” Donetsk district governor Pavlo Kirilenko told the Telegram. The Ukrainian Defense Ministry has accused Russian forces of using cluster munitions banned by an international treaty because of their indiscriminate effect, and which have already been used by Russian troops during previous invasions, such as international organizations such as Amnesty. Human Rights Watch.

Witnesses described The Washington Post The initial blast, which was followed by four or five explosions, they said were cluster bombs that hit outside the building where crowds were gathering to get on the train. The blasts also hit two seating areas outside the station, where dozens of people were waiting to be evacuated. “People were everywhere. “Limbs are cut off, flesh, bones, pieces everywhere,” he said Post A woman at the station was waiting for a train when she heard the first explosion. His son is alive but badly injured by debris.

Pictures before this Friday Show crowds at the city train station. “I myself have been to Kramatorsk twice in the last two weeks. “I have seen the eyes of thousands of people fleeing the war for whom the railway is now the only solution,” said the Ukrainian railway company’s chief of staff.

“In the last three days, Russian troops have opened fire on more than 10 stations in the east and continue firing. He said on Thursday that three trains carrying evacuees had been blocked in the same region after the bombing, but had finally “successfully overcome the blockade”.

Ukraine is preparing for an attack in the east

The governor of the Donetsk region has accused Russian forces of “deliberately disrupting” the evacuation of civilians before launching a large-scale offensive. “For them, human life is just a means of trade and a weapon to achieve their cynical goal. The evacuation will continue. “Anyone who wants to leave the region will be able to do so.”

Kiev in recent days has been urging civilians to leave the east of the country “as long as this opportunity exists”. Irina Vereshchuk, Ukraine’s vice-premier in charge of announcing humanitarian corridors every day, said on Thursday that governors of the eastern regions of Kharkiv, Lugansk and Donetsk were urging people to move immediately to safer areas. “It must be done now, because later people will be on fire and in danger of death. They can do nothing. (…) It is necessary to evacuate as long as this opportunity exists. “It’s still there at the moment.”

After withdrawing from the north, the Ukrainian military has repeatedly stated that Russian forces are preparing for an attack in eastern Ukraine, where there have been attacks since the first days of the invasion. NATO also claims that Moscow has failed to achieve its goal of capturing Kiev by regrouping, rearming and supplying troops and targeting the east: the Atlantic Alliance believes it will try to take the entire Donbass and create a corridor. Land Crimea, annexed in 2014.

British intelligence believes that at least part of the force, which has completely crossed into Belarus and Russia, will move east to fight in the Donbas. “Many of these forces will need significant supplies before they are ready to deploy further east, and any massive redistribution from the north will likely take at least a week,” they said in a recent update of their reports. The Washington-based Institute for War Studies (ISW) believes that Russian forces are likely to try to regroup and deploy units withdrawn from northeastern Ukraine to support the attack, but it is unlikely that these units will allow Russia to advance.

During the invasion, Moscow achieved its main advance east and south, and after saying that “the main objectives of the first phase of the operation were generally achieved,” it said it was focusing its “major efforts on achievements.” The main goal is to free Donbass. This predominantly Russian-speaking industrial region has been embroiled in an armed conflict since 2014 between pro-Russian militias and the Ukrainian army, which has resulted in more than 14,000 deaths on both sides, both as civilians and as soldiers.

Russian bombardment of cities in the east and south continues, and Russian forces move further south to the city of Izumi, which remains under their control. According to military analysts, in order to successfully capture Donetsk and Lugansk, Russian forces in Izumi are besieging Ukrainian forces along the country’s line of contact in the east. ISW experts believe they will try to move through Slovyansk, near the town of Kramatorsk.

“This is an evil that has no borders “

In line with what they have been saying since the beginning of the invasion – and despite the various bombings of Russia against civilian infrastructure – the Russian Defense Ministry denies responsibility for the attack on the station and claims that the statements of the Ukrainian authorities are “provocative and completely false.” They claim that their army does not use the missile that hit the station, Tochka-u, and blame the Ukrainian forces.

This argument has already been rejected by experts. In a statement to the Associated Press, Justin Bronk, a researcher at the Royal United Services Institute in London, said Russia’s use of the missile, which struck the station, was documented during the ongoing war and suggested it could be a “pre-planned measure to allow them to use the same The old adage “We do not use this system, this is an old system” and thus constantly pollute the water. Bronk also points out that the Ukrainian army is trying to strengthen its units in the district and at railway stations, because “it is in the territory of the territory controlled by Ukraine. [infraestructuras] It is critical for the equipment and the movement of people. ”

Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky has condemned what he calls “boundless evil.” “The occupiers attacked the Kramatorsk railway station with Tochka-U, where thousands of peaceful Ukrainians were waiting to be evacuated. “Russian non-humans are not abandoning their methods. They do not have the strength and courage to oppose us on the battlefield, cynically destroying civilians. This is an evil that has no boundaries. And if he is not punished, he will never stop. ”

Speaking before the Finnish Parliament, Zelenski claimed that Kramatorski is the usual train station in the city. “They attacked ordinary people, they were not soldiers (…) This is any train station. In any city in the east of our country. This is how Russia came to “protect” Donbas. This is how Russia came to “protect” the Russian-speaking people.

Internationally, the harsh images of the hit station have once again sparked condemnation. “I strongly condemn the indiscriminate attack by Russia on a train station in Kramatorsk this morning,” said Josep Borrell, the European Union’s foreign minister in Kyiv. “This is a new attempt to close the escape routes for those fleeing this unjust war and causing human suffering. “This morning, a rocket attack on a train station used to evacuate civilians in Ukraine is disgusting,” said Ursula von der Leyen, president of the European Commission.

US President Joe Biden said the attack on a train station in Ukraine was “another horrific atrocity committed by Russia, striking civilians trying to take part in the evacuation and reach a safe place.”

Murat ჰahin, UNICEF Representative in Ukraine, assured in the statement that there is a “worst case scenario”. “We strongly condemn today’s attack on a train station in Kramatorsk. We do not yet know how many children were killed or injured as a result of this attack, but we fear the worst. The Kramatorsk railway station was the main exit route for thousands of families leaving Donetsk to suffer the worst devastation of the war.