Russia denies attacking Kramatorsk station

Kramatorsk, Apr 9: Russia on Friday claimed it did not launch an attack on a train station in eastern Ukraine that killed at least 35 people, news agency AFP said. "All statements by representatives of the Kyiv nationalist regime about the 'rocket attack' allegedly carried out by Russia on April 8 at the railway station in Kramatorsk are a provocation and are absolutely untrue," its defence ministry said.

 

 

 

The defence ministry also said Russian forces did not have missions planned today in Kramatorsk, and that the missile that destroyed the train station - which is being used by hundreds of civilians to flee from areas being bombarded by Russia - 'are used only by Ukrainian armed forces'.

 

 

 

"We emphasise that Tochka-U tactical missiles, fragments of which were found near the Kramatorsk railway station and published by eyewitnesses, are used only by the Ukrainian armed forces. " Moscow's statement was echoed by a military commander from the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic - part of Ukraine's breakaway Donbas region at the centre of the war with Russia - who was quoted by Russian news agency TASS as calling the attack Ukrainian 'provocation'. The European Union accused Russia of a 'horrifying' attack; EU council chief Charles Michel accused Russia of cutting off an escape route for civilians.

 

 

Shortly before Ukraine's state railway agency said two Russian missiles had struck a station in Kramatorsk being used by civilians to evacuate from areas experiencing military conflict. "According to (available) data, more than 30 people were killed and more than 100 were wounded in the rocket attack on Kramatorsk railway station," the railway agency said in its statement. According to the mayor of the city, Oleksander Honcharenko, there were about 4,000 people, most of them elderly, women and children, at the station when it was attacked. Ukraine president Volodymyr Zelenskyy described Russia as 'an evil with no limits'. "They are cynically destroying the civilian population. This is an evil that has no limits. And if it is not punished, it will never stop," Zelenskyy said in a statement on social media. Three trains carrying evacuees were blocked in the same region of Ukraine on Thursday, Reuters reported, after an airstrike on the line, according to the head of Ukrainian Railways.