Russian rocket strike on Ukrainian train station kills at least 50 people trying to evacuate, officials say

• Two Russian rockets hit a train station in eastern Ukraine Friday morning, Ukraine's state-run rail firm said.
• The strike on Kramatorsk killed at least 50 people and injured 98 others, the region's governor said.

At least 50 people were killed after two Russian rockets hit a train station in eastern Ukraine that was packed with people who had fled their homes, Ukrainian officials said Friday.

The attack took place Friday morning in Kramatorsk, a town in Donetsk, an oblast that is also home to pro-Russian separatist forces. Donetsk is part of the Donbas region.

Five of the victims were children, said Pavlo Kyrylenko, the governor of the Donetsk region, in a Facebook post. In addition to the 50 people killed, 98 others were injured, Kyrylenko said, adding that he expects the number of victims to change.

The state-owned Ukrainian Railways said Friday morning that the train station was packed with people evacuating their homes, Reuters reported. It was not clear where the evacuees' final destination was.

Ukraine's parliament shared graphic videos and photos of dead bodies lying on the street with backpacks strewn around them. Insider has chosen not to republish the footage.

Tochka-U missile

Eliot Higgins of the Bellingcat investigative news site tweeted that one of the rockets used was a Tochka-U, a Soviet-era tactical ballistic missile.

—Eliot Higgins (@EliotHiggins) April 8, 2022

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy condemned the strike and also said the weapon used was a Tochka-U. He also blamed Russia for the attack.

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

Kyrylenko accused Russia of using cluster munitions in the attack.

He told an online briefing on Friday, according to Reuters: "If at the beginning they exclusively ... targeted railway tracks, then now it's not only tracks, but also firing a missile containing cluster munitions which are meant for people. This is absolute confirmation that this was intended against civilians."

Kyrylenko did not provide any evidence for his allegation regarding the use of cluster munitions.

Ukraine's foreign minister Dmytro Kuleba also condemned the attack, calling it a "deliberate slaughter" in a tweet.

Russia claims Ukrainian hoax

Russia has consistently denied attacking civilians despite a multitude of evidence indicating so.

In a statement carried by the Russian state TV network Zvezda, the Russian defense ministry claimed that the strike on Kramatorsk was a Ukrainian hoax, and that the missile used in the attack is only used by Ukrainian forces. No proof was provided for these assertions.

Kyrylenko, the regional governor, said after the attack: "The Russians knew exactly where they were hitting and who they were targeting."

A separate air strike on a train line also blocked three trains carrying evacuees from moving on Thursday, Ukrainian Railways said, according to Reuters.

Ukrainian and Western officials said in recent weeks that Russia appeared to be repositioning its troops to eastern Ukraine.

On February 21, the Kremlin recognized Donetsk and Luhansk, another pro-Russian oblast in the Donbas, as independent states, giving Russia a pretext to attack Ukraine. Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24.