Zelensky calls for “a firm global response” after massacre of 52 civilians in Kramatorsk

the ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskycalled for “a firm global response” after the deadly bombing of a train station in Kramatorskin eastern Ukraine, packed with civilians trying to flee the Russian invasion.

“It is another Russian war crime for which one of those involved should be held accountable,” said Zelensky in a video message following the missile attack on Friday that killed 52 people, including five children.

“World powers have already condemned Russia’s attack on Kramatorsk. We look forward to a strong global response against this war crime,” he added.

US President Joe Biden denounced a “horrible atrocity” by Moscow, which, for its part, denied its involvement in the attack, assuring that it did not have the type of missile used and that it had been a Ukrainian “provocation”.

Ukrainian military and emergency personnel attend to victims after a rocket attack on the train station in the eastern city of Kramatorsk. (ANATOLII STEPANOV / AFP).

However, a senior US defense official noted that the Russians “initially reported a successful attack” and that “they retracted only after reports of civilian casualties.”

SIGHT: Zelensky accuses Russia of “exterminating” civilians after bloody attack on Kramatorsk train station

In fact, the Russian Ministry of Defense had reported on Friday the destruction with high-precision missiles of “weapons and other military equipment at the Pokrovsk, Sloviansk and Barbinkove stations”, towns near Kramatorsk, the “capital” of the part of the Donbas still under control of kyiv.

“For our children”

The missile fell around 10:30 a.m. (07:30 GMT), a time when hundreds of people have been coming to the station for days to wait for a train to leave the donbasscene since 2014 of a war between Ukrainian forces and pro-Russian separatists.

AFP journalists have seen at least 30 bodies being loaded onto a military truck. In front of the station was the twisted remains of the missile, with the inscription in Russian: “For our children”, a phrase commonly used by rebel separatists.

“For our children” – the inscription on the missile that destroyed the Kramatorsk station. (Photo: FADEL SENNA / AFP). (FADEL SENNA/)

The station was littered with abandoned suitcases, broken glass and debris. “I’m looking for my husband, he was here but I can’t find him,” said a woman, not daring to approach the bodies lined up outside the station.

The tragedy coincided with the visit to Ukraine of the president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, and the head of community diplomacy, Josep Borrell, who traveled to Bucha, a city near kyiv that has become a symbol of the atrocities of this war.

There, after the withdrawal of Russian forces in early April, dozens of bodies appeared in civilian clothes, some with their hands tied behind their backs.

“I am deeply convinced that Ukraine will win this war”Von der Leyen said in kyiv at a conference with Zelenskywhich on Saturday will also receive the visit of the Austrian Chancellor, Karl Nehammer.

The President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, is flanked by the Prime Minister of Slovakia, Eduard Heger, and the High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Josep Borrell, as they visit a mass grave in the Bucha city, northwest of kyiv, on April 8, 2022. (SERGEI SUPINSKY / AFP).

After withdrawing his troops in kyiv and in the north of UkraineRussia focuses its offensive on the donbas and the southern coastal strip of the country. Analysts believe that President Vladimir Putin wants to gain control of this region before May 9, which commemorates the end of World War II.

The Ukrainian authorities try to minimize the damage with accelerated evacuations of civilians in the east or the imposition of a curfew in Odessa, a large port city on the Black Sea, in the face of “a threat of missile attacks”.

shipment of weapons

New accusations of crimes against civilians have prompted Western powers to increase their sanctions against Russia, excluded Thursday from the UN Human Rights Council.

However, the multiple economic measures have not succeeded in excessively weakening the Russian currency, the ruble, which recovered from the initial collapse thanks to energy exports and the control measures adopted by the Russian Central Bank.

In fact, this entity even announced that as of April 18 it will once again authorize the sale of foreign currency, suspended at the beginning of March.

The European Union, which decreed the paralysis of Russian coal imports and the closure of ports to ships from that country, tightened the pressure on the Kremlin by including two daughters of Vladimir Putin on the sanctions blacklist.

The United Kingdom did the same and also added the daughter of Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov.

But Ukraine especially requests the “immediate” delivery of weapons in order to counter the feared Russian offensive in the east.

In this sense, the United Kingdom announced the shipment of more anti-tank and anti-aircraft missiles. And Slovakia donated Soviet-designed S-300 anti-aircraft defense systems to kyiv.

Increasingly the focus of accusations by human rights organizations, the Russian Ministry of Justice ordered on Friday the closure of the premises of entities such as Amnesty International or Human Rights Watch.

After a month and a half of invasion, the repercussions of the conflict between two large grain exporters are spreading throughout the world: the United Nations FAO warned that world food prices reached “the highest levels ever recorded” in March.

Source: Elcomercio