RFE/RLFri, 08 Apr 2022 19:40 UTC
Bodies are covered with plastic sheets after a rocket attack on April 8 at a train station in Kramatorsk on April 8.
Thirty-nine people have been killed and more than 100 wounded
in a Russian missile strike on a railway station in eastern Ukraine in what President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said was a deliberate attack on civilians.
Ukraine's state railway company said two Russian rockets struck the station on April 8 in Kramatorsk, which was being used to evacuate civilians from areas that are
expected to come under heavy attack as Moscow redirects its war efforts to focus on eastern areas where the separatists it has backed since 2014 have been fighting Ukrainian troops.
"Lacking the strength and courage to stand up to us on the battlefield, they are cynically destroying the civilian population," Zelenskiy said in a statement. "This is an evil that has no limits. And if it is not punished, it will never stop."
Zelenskiy later said in a video address to Finland's parliament that Europe cannot offer a "partial response" to Russia and its aggression "because freedom will not survive if we leave the channels of tyranny."
Video and images posted on social media showed dozens of dead civilians next to backpacks and suitcases they were carrying with them.
Ukrainian officials, including Pavlo Kyrylenko, head of the Donetsk Regional Military Administration, said at least four children were among the dead.
"The Russians are deliberately trying to disrupt the evacuation of civilians.... For them, people's lives are just a bargaining chip and an instrument to achieve their cynical goal," Kyrylenko said.
Kramatorsk Mayor Oleksandr Honcharenko said about 4,000 people had been at the station at the time of the attack.
Both the Kremlin and the Defense Ministry denied Russia was responsible for the attack.The remains of a large rocket
with the words "for our children" in Russian was lying just adjacent to the main building.
"I'm looking for my husband. He was here. I can't reach him," a woman told AFP, sobbing and holding her phone to her ear.
Another woman in a state of shock said: "I was in the station. I heard like a double explosion. I rushed to the wall for protection.
"Then I saw people covered in blood entering the station and bodies everywhere on the ground."
The attack came as European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, Josep Borrell, the European Union's top diplomat, and Slovak Prime Minister Eduard Heger
were in Kyiv for talks with Zelenskiy.
As their train from Poland arrived in Kyiv, von der Leyen
said in a tweet that the attack on the station in Kramatorsk was "despicable."
Comment: For videos and pictures, see
South Front. Ukrainian officials first claimed the missile was an Iskander (i.e. Russian). But when photos of an unexploded portion of one of the missiles turned up, and it was obviously a Tochka-U, Zelensky changed his tune.
Since
Russia uses Iskanders, not Tochka-U's, anti-Russian analysts are trying to claim that Russia has and uses Tochkas, citing video evidence of said missiles in a military convoy in Belarus from sometime this year. (Belarus does have Tochkas, and they
were launched during joint military exercises in Belarus in February.) The fact remains that Russia itself does not officially have any Tochkas in its arsenal, and there is no evidence they have used any Tochkas in Ukraine. See Gleb Bazov's
Twitter thread on the missile strike.
The trajectory appears to have been from the Southwest. This is what the Russian MOD
has to say:
⚡️Russian Defence Ministry denies statements made by Kiev regime about an alleged missile attack on the railway station in Kramatorsk, Donetsk Region
▫️All statements by representatives of the Kiev nationalist regime about an alleged missile attack by Russia on the railway station in Kramatorsk city on April 8 are a provocation and are absolutely untrue.
▫️The Russian Armed Forces did not have or plan to carry out any firing missions in Kramatorsk city on April 8.
▫️We emphasize in particular that Tochka-U tactical missiles, the wreckage of which was found near the Kramatorsk railway station and published by eyewitnesses, are used by Ukrainian Armed Forces only.
▫️On March 14, 2022, a similar Tochka-U missile of Division of 19th Separate Missile Brigade of the Ukrainian Armed Forces struck the centre of Donetsk, killing 17 people on the spot and injuring another 36 civilians.
⚡️Statement by Russian Defence Ministry
▫️In order to accuse Russia of an alleged missile strike on Kramatorsk railway station, Kiev regime has posted on social media pictures of Tochka-U missile launchers that took part in "Union Courage 2022" Russian-Belarusian exercise in February.
▫️Please note, all photos published by Kiev from "Union Courage 2022" exercise show non-Russian missile systems.
▫️Tochka-U tactical missiles whose wreckage was found near Kramatorsk railway station are used only by the Ukrainian Armed Forces.
▫️According to clarified information, the strike on Kramatorsk railway station was carried out by missile division of the Ukrainian armed forces from area of Dobropol'e, 45 kilometres south-west of the city.
▫️The aim of Kiev regime's strike on the railway station in Kramatorsk was to disrupt the mass exit of residents from the city in order to use them as a "human shield" to defend Ukrainian armed forces positions, as in many other Ukrainian population centres.
❗️Today, the Ukrainian Armed Forces struck Kramatorsk railway station with Tochka-U tactical missile.
▫️Tochka-U tactical missile, the wreckage of which was found near Kramatorsk railway station, is only used by the Ukrainian Armed Forces.
▫️I would like to point out that the maximum range of Tochka-U missile is 120 km. The warhead weighs 482kg and contains 20 fragmentation warheads, each 7.5kg, forming around 16,000 fragments.
▫️An analysis of the engagement radius of the warhead, as well as the characteristic position of Tochka-U missile's tail section, clearly confirm that it was launched from a south-western direction away from Kramatorsk.
▫️According to intelligence reports, one of the divisions of the 19th Missile Brigade armed with Tochka-U missile systems at the time of the strike on Kramatorsk was located near Dobropol'e in Donetsk Region, 45 km south-west of Kramatorsk.
▫️This area is still under the full control of the Ukrainian military grouping troops in Donbass.
❗️I would like to stress that the Ukrainian Armed Forces still possess a significant arsenal of Tochka-U missiles.
▫️Before the start of the special military operation, the Kiev regime had 20 Tochka-U missile systems with 2 launchers each.
▫️During the special military operation, 8 Ukrainian Tochka-U rocket launchers and around 90 per cent of the missiles at the arsenals were destroyed.
▫️Nevertheless, the threat by the Kiev regime of continued provocations and missile attacks on populated areas with civilians remains high.
⚡️⚡️ Foreign Ministry statement on Ukraine's strike at Kramatorsk.
On April 8, the Ukrainian Armed Forces (UAF) committed yet another war crime by striking a railway station in Kiev-controlled Kramatorsk with a Tochka-U tactical missile.
Dozens were killed and over a hundred injured.
🕯 We convey our deep condolences to the families and friends of the deceased.
🚫 The choice of the target was not random - the Kiev regime is striving to maximise the number of civilian victims.
Their murders in Donbass have become standard practice for Ukrainian armed units in the past eight years. By cynically killing civilians in cold blood, Kiev is trying to blame Russia for its own crimes in order to discredit Moscow's special military operation to defend the DPR and the LPR.
* * *
❗️ We urge the international community to objectively evaluate the crimes committed by Ukrainian units, to stop supplying them with arms and prompt Kiev to renounce its unacceptable methods of hostility.
Pro-Ukrainian sources claim the missiles were launched from Shakhtars'k, approximately 100 km to the south
east of Kramatorsk, in the DPR. They cite
this video as proof, showing the launch of two missiles. (Rybar
responds by observing that the video was filmed at 9:22, whereas the missile landed at around 10:30. If the device was set to GMT+2, the missile still should have reached Kramatorsk in 2 minutes, not 8. Certain signatures also suggest the missiles filmed are not Tochkas but air-defense missiles.)
UPDATE: See these two telegram links (
one,
two). The serial number almost certainly suggests the Tochka in question was from Ukraine's arsenal. Combined with the most likely trajectory, it's all but certain that Ukraine launched this attack on on the evacuating civilians in Kramatorsk:
Serial number of the missile, that hit Kramatorsk is Ш91579. It suggests, that Kramatorsk was shelled by Ukrainian military.
Previous Ukrainian Tochka-U missiles with similar serial numbers that hit Donbass and territories under Russian control:
- 1. 04.09.2014 Khartsyzsk (Ш915622);
- 2. 02.02.2015 Alchevsk (Ш91565);
- 3., 4., 5. с 13.02.2015 Logvinovo (Ш91566, Ш915527, Ш915328),
Recently:
- 6. до 19.03.2022 Berdiansk under Russian control (Ш915611);
- 7. до 17.03.2022 Melitopol under Russian control (Ш915516).
And cherry on top:
blurring of the serial number on the photo published by the National police of Ukraine - Tochka-U missile, that fell 11.03.2022 in Avdeyevka on Ukrainian controlled territory.
Comment: For videos and pictures, see South Front. Ukrainian officials first claimed the missile was an Iskander (i.e. Russian). But when photos of an unexploded portion of one of the missiles turned up, and it was obviously a Tochka-U, Zelensky changed his tune.
Since Russia uses Iskanders, not Tochka-U's, anti-Russian analysts are trying to claim that Russia has and uses Tochkas, citing video evidence of said missiles in a military convoy in Belarus from sometime this year. (Belarus does have Tochkas, and they were launched during joint military exercises in Belarus in February.) The fact remains that Russia itself does not officially have any Tochkas in its arsenal, and there is no evidence they have used any Tochkas in Ukraine. See Gleb Bazov's Twitter thread on the missile strike.
The trajectory appears to have been from the Southwest. This is what the Russian MOD has to say: Pro-Ukrainian sources claim the missiles were launched from Shakhtars'k, approximately 100 km to the southeast of Kramatorsk, in the DPR. They cite this video as proof, showing the launch of two missiles. (Rybar responds by observing that the video was filmed at 9:22, whereas the missile landed at around 10:30. If the device was set to GMT+2, the missile still should have reached Kramatorsk in 2 minutes, not 8. Certain signatures also suggest the missiles filmed are not Tochkas but air-defense missiles.)
UPDATE: See these two telegram links (one, two). The serial number almost certainly suggests the Tochka in question was from Ukraine's arsenal. Combined with the most likely trajectory, it's all but certain that Ukraine launched this attack on on the evacuating civilians in Kramatorsk: