KRAMATORSK, Ukraine — At least 50 people were killed and 98 injured Friday at the Kramatorsk train station in eastern Ukraine, according to the regional governor, in what Ukrainian officials said was a Russian missile attack as hundreds of evacuees were waiting to escape a looming Russian offensive in the area.
Pavlo Kyrylenko, head of the Donetsk regional administration, said the death toll rose from an early count of 39. He vowed on Telegram that the deadly strike would not deter Ukrainian officials from helping citizens who are trying to leave as fighting in the region intensifies.
A large piece of a missile landed 100 yards from the entrance of the train station. On the side of the missile remnant, the words “For the children” in Russian were visible as police investigators documented the scene. The phrase in Russian connotes “revenge for our children,” apparently in keeping with Moscow’s rationale that the war is being fought to protect the separatist Donbas region and Russia.
A Russian missile attack struck the Kramatorsk train station in Ukraine on April 8 as evacuees were waiting to escape the region. (Video: The Washington Post, Photo: The Washington Post)
Washington Post reporters who arrived at the station in the eastern Donetsk region moments after the attack counted at least 20 dead amid the chaos and destruction, among them children. Ukrainian military personnel, police and volunteers collected the dead, covering their bodies in pieces of a green tarp as the injured were shuttled to hospitals.
Witnesses interviewed by The Post described an initial explosion followed by four to five blasts that they believed were “cluster bombs” that struck outside the building where a large crowd had assembled for an arriving train. The explosions also struck two seating areas outside the station, where dozens of people were waiting to be evacuated.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky blamed Russia for the attack in a Telegram post. He added that the dozens of victims who survived were injured “to varying degrees.”
“Lacking the strength and courage to stand up to us on the battlefield, they are cynically destroying the civilian population. This is an evil that has no limits,” Zelensky said.
Kyrylenko, the regional governor, said that of the 98 wounded who were rushed to hospitals, 16 were children, 46 were women and 36 were men. Of the 50 who were killed, 12 died of their injures at the hospital, while 38 people died at the station, he said.
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba decried the attack, calling it a “deliberate slaughter.”
The chairman of the Ukrainian Railways operator, Alexander Kamyshin, wrote on Telegram that the attack deliberately targeted passenger infrastructure. The railway operator said two missiles struck the station and that details were still being clarified. The Kramatorsk police said the station was hit by Russian ballistic missiles.
Russia has denied any involvement in the attack, calling Ukrainian officials’ accusations “absolutely untrue.” Russia’s Defense Ministry said in a statement Friday: “The Russian armed forces did not have any fire missions on April 8 in the city of Kramatorsk, and none were planned.” It claimed that remnants found near the station were from weapons “used only by the Ukrainian armed forces.”
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov also told reporters Friday that Russia’s military has “no combat missions in Kramatorsk” and reiterated Moscow’s denial of involvement. Eduard Basurin, a pro-Russian separatist commander in the Donetsk region, charged that the Ukrainian military organized a “provocation” at the railway station and was responsible for the incident, Russia’s RIA Novosti news agency reported.
Several eyewitnesses at the scene told Washington Post reporters that nearly 1,000 people were gathered at the station, most of them evacuees fleeing the Russian invasion, as fighting intensifies in the region.
On the train platform, dozens of blood-splattered bags and personal items remained where they were left by evacuees. A long heavy trail of blood leading from a nearby bench to the entrance of the building was also visible.
“There were people everywhere. Torn off limbs, flesh, bone, pieces of people everywhere,” said Yelena Khalenmonva, who was inside the station waiting for a train leaving her hometown of Kramatorsk when she heard the first blast followed by a series of explosions.
Khalenmonva told The Post that outside she found her 27-year-old son, lying among five other bodies covered in human remains. He was alive, but gravely injured by shrapnel.
Another passenger, Anton Ladygin, from the nearby town of Slovyansk, said he was waiting outside the train station before the missile struck and fell to the ground and threw his body on top of his girlfriend as the explosions erupted around them. “People were screaming. There were explosions everywhere,” he said.
The injured overwhelmed Kramatorsk’s Town Hospital No. 3, as medical staff and volunteers struggled to treat 47 victims who arrived at their facility. With all five of the operating rooms full, medical staff treated more than 20 patients in a hallway and waiting room.
A man lying on the floor screamed in pain as military medics rushed to seal a gushing wound. “I need tape! Give me tape!” yelled a woman treating the man’s shrapnel wounds.
Inside an operating room, surgeons struggled to stabilize a grievously wounded patient who was convulsing from blood loss. Members of the Ukrainian armed services rushed three injured children down the chaotic hospital corridor to idling ambulances to receive further treatment in the city of Dnipro.
Kyrylenko, the head of the Donetsk regional administration, wrote on Telegram that thousands of people were at the railway station trying to flee the area while it was still relatively safe to do so, as Russian troops reposition away from the north and focus on the east and south of Ukraine.
“Police and rescuers working in the city are reporting dozens of dead and injured people,” he said. “Thousands of people were at the station during the missile strike, as residents of the Donetsk region are being evacuated to safer regions of Ukraine.”
Kyrylenko shared graphic images of bodies in the station and piles of luggage strewn nearby, as well as firefighters heading into the station serving Kramatorsk, which has a population of almost 160,000. The Donetsk regional chief accused Russian forces of deliberately targeting civilians attempting to flee, writing: “They want to destroy everything Ukrainian.”
The office of Ukraine’s prosecutor general said Friday that it would launch an investigation into the attack and possible violations of the laws and customs of war, as it appealed for witnesses.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, tweeted her condemnation of the event calling it “despicable,” and stating that she would give her condolences in person when she meets President Zelensky in Kyiv later Friday. The E.U.’s top foreign policy official, Josep Borrell, who is traveling with Von der Leyen blamed Russia for the attack.
“I strongly condemn this morning’s indiscriminate attack against a train station in #Kramatorsk by Russia, which killed dozens of people and left many more wounded,” Borrell said. “This is yet another attempt to close escape routes for those fleeing this unjustified war.”
I strongly condemn this morning’s indiscriminate attack against a train station in #Kramatorsk by Russia, which killed dozens of people and left many more wounded. This is yet another attempt to close escape routes for those fleeing this unjustified war and cause human suffering
— Josep Borrell Fontelles (@JosepBorrellF) April 8, 2022
Suliman reported from London and Ilyushina from Riga, Latvia. Annabelle Chapman in Paris contributed to this report.