Russian missile strike kills dozens at train station used for evacuations

A Russian rocket attack left over 30 people dead and more than 100 people injured after striking a train station full of citizens attempting to evacuate in the eastern Ukrainian city of Kramatorsk, according to multiple reports.

Ukraine’s state railway company said that two rockets struck the station, The Guardian reported.

The train station was being used to assist in civilian evacuations.

“This is a deliberate blow to the passenger infrastructure of the railway and the residents of Kramatorsk,” Ukrainian Railways said on Telegram, according to CNBC.

The head of the Donetsk Regional Military Administration, Pavlo Kyrylenko, said that 50 people had died, including five children.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said in a post on Facebook on Friday that rescuers and police were already at the scene.

“Not having the strength and courage to confront us on the battlefield, they are cynically destroying the civilian population. This is evil that knows no bounds. And if it is not punished it will never stop,” he said, showing photos and video of the gruesome scene.

The attack was also condemned by Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba, who called it “deliberate slaughter.”

“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,” Kuleba tweeted.

He also tweeted a photo presumably showing the area near the train station where personal belongings, including a stroller, were left strewn about.

Russia claimed that only the Ukrainian military used the rockets involved in the incident and denied being involved in the tragedy, according to The Guardian.

The event comes only a day after the United Nations General Assembly voted to suspend Russia from its Human Rights Council. The United States and others have accused Russia of committing war crimes amid its invasion of its neighboring country.

“Russia has no place on the Human Rights Council,” President Biden said in a statement on Wednesday applauding the General Assembly’s vote.

“The images we are seeing out of Bucha and other areas of Ukraine as Russian troops withdraw are horrifying. The signs of people being raped, tortured, executed—in some cases having their bodies desecrated—are an outrage to our common humanity. Russia’s lies are no match for the undeniable evidence of what is happening in Ukraine,” he added.

—Updated at 10:54 a.m.