“For our children”, the inscription on the missile that destroyed the Kramatorsk station

It was 10:30 in the morning, a time when hundreds of people go to the station every day Kramatorsk. A fateful hour for those seeking to evacuate from this city located east of Ukraine and run away from russian troops in search of a better destination. But a missile got in the way and ended his plans.

SIGHT: Dozens of civilians killed and more than 100 injured in Russian attack on train station used for evacuations

“I’m looking for my husband, he was there, I can’t locate him”, Says a woman through tears, who hesitates to approach the bodies of the railway station.

After the attack, a deathly silence reigns over the red and white brick station. All around him, there is broken glass, abandoned suitcases and trails of blood.

SIGHT: Could Zelensky’s fake-background videos from kyiv prove he has fled Ukraine?

There are also the twisted remains of the missile, on which you can read, in white letters and in Russian, the inscription “for our children”.

The phrase, which sounds like revenge, is sometimes used by pro-Russian separatists to refer to their sons killed in the Donbas war, which began in 2014.

SIGHT: Von der Leyen and Borrell arrive in kyiv and visit a mass grave in Bucha

Attack “deliberate”

On the platform, several corpses lie next to a cane and not far from a stuffed rabbit. Two steps from where the missile hit, leaving a hole in the ground, a leather bag and the rest of a foot.

Amidst the rubble, a policeman picks up the cell phones full of blood. One of them keeps ringing in the void.

This photo taken on April 8, 2022 shows the railway station, seen from a train car, after a rocket attack in Kramatorsk, eastern Ukraine. (Photo: FADEL SENNA / AFP) (FADEL SENNA /)

The authorities gather the bodies in a corner of the esplanade, under the awnings of the small shops where passengers usually buy a drink before boarding the train.

And under orders from a military doctor, soldiers and policemen evacuate the corpses in an army truck. Some of the bags do not weigh, it only takes two men to carry them, which suggests that inside there are children’s bodies or just body parts.

“I saw about 15 injured, but it is difficult to say how many there were, many were immediately evacuated in cars to hospitals”, explains a volunteer, who before the attack, was helping to channel the flow of families in the station.

According to the governor of the Donetsk region, Pavlo Kyrylensko, at least 50 people were killed, including five children. The director of the Ukrainian railway company Ukrzaliznytsia, Oleksandre Kamyshin, denounces that the attack was “deliberate”.

An hour before the attack, hundreds of people, including the elderly, women and children, were waiting in line to leave the region.

In recent days, thousands of people have been evacuated by train to safer areas of the country due to the possibility of a new Russian offensive.

The Ukrainian authorities had been asking the population for days to evacuate the Donbas region, still under Ukrainian control and of which Krematorsk is the capital.

But still, for the Russian army, which denounces a provocation by kyiv, “the objective of this attack orchestrated by the kyiv regime (…) was to prevent the civilian population from leaving” from the city.

“double bang”

In the midst of desolation, Natalia looks for her bag and her passport. “There were many people at the station and in front of her. I was inside, I heard a double explosion, I rushed against the wall to protect myself“, bill.

It is difficult for him to speak and, together with a policeman, he walks quickly trying to avoid the trampled blood that spreads everywhere.

Burned-out cars are shown outside a train station in Kramatorsk, eastern Ukraine, which was being used for civilian evacuations, on April 8, 2022. (Photo: FADEL SENNA / AFP) (FADEL SENNA /)

“Then I saw people entering the station full of blood, bodies everywhere on the ground, I don’t know if they were injured or dead. The soldiers rushed to tell us to evacuate the station, I left everything here“, remember.

On the grass in front of the building, police tape prohibits getting too close to the twisted remains of a large khaki missile.

“It was a Tochka missile, a cluster bomb.”A police officer at the scene assures AFP. “It explodes on several sides, on a surface the size of a football field“, he claimed.

According to the blood on the floor and the testimonies collected at the scene, the victims were riddled with bullets in several places in the station, on the adjoining main platform and in its plaza.

Source: Elcomercio