Russia-Ukraine live updates: At least 30 killed in airstrike on Kramatorsk train station, Ukrainian officials say

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KRAMATORSK, Ukraine — More than 30 people were killed and over 100 injured Friday at the Kramatorsk train station in eastern Ukraine, according to Ukrainian officials, in what they said was a Russian missile attack while hundreds of evacuees were waiting to escape amid an expected Russian onslaught on eastern Ukraine. Washington Post reporters who arrived at the station after the attack counted at least 20 casualties.

The deadly strike came as European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen traveled to Kyiv to meet with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. Her trip comes a day after the E.U. approved a plan to phase out Russian coal by mid-August, in its latest move amid global outrage after the brutal slaying of civilians in the Kyiv suburb of Bucha was revealed after Russian forces withdrew.

A British intelligence assessment Friday said Russian forces had now fully withdrawn from northern Ukraine into Russia and Belarus. Ukrainian officials say hundreds of corpses have been discovered in newly liberated areas of the Kyiv region — and Zelensky warned in his nightly address Thursday to expect “much worse” death and destruction in the Kyiv suburb of Borodyanka and besieged port city of Mariupol, in comparison to what has already unfolded in Bucha.

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In a rare admission, the Kremlin’s spokesman acknowledged that Russia has suffered “significant losses of troops” in Ukraine.The Pentagon said it was providing Kyiv with intelligence to combat the Kremlin in the east, where Ukrainian officials say Russian forces are deploying “scorched earth” tactics. Congress sent two bills aimed at punishing Russia and aiding Ukraine to President Biden for his signature, ending a months long impasse over how to respond to Russia’s invasion.The World Health Organization said it had recorded more than 100 attacks against health care facilities and transports since Russia’s Feb. 24 invasion.The Washington Post has lifted its paywall for readers in Russia and Ukraine. Telegram users can subscribe to our channel for updates.
UNDERSTANDING THE RUSSIA-UKRAINE CONFLICT

KRAMATORSK, Ukraine — More than 30 people were killed and over 100 injured Friday at the Kramatorsk train station in eastern Ukraine, according to Ukrainian officials, in what they said was a Russian missile attack while hundreds of evacuees were waiting to escape fighting in the area.

Washington Post reporters who arrived at the station in the eastern Donetsk region after the attack counted at least 20 dead.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said in a Telegram post that police and rescuers were at the scene and that at least 30 people were killed and that 100 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,” he said, blaming Russia for the attack.

The chairman of the Ukrainian Railways operator, Alexander Kamyshin, also wrote on Telegram that more than 30 people were killed in what he said was a deliberate strike on passenger infrastructure. The railway operator added that two missiles struck the station and that details were still being clarified. The Kramatorsk police said the station was struck by Russian ballistic missiles.

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,” said Pavlo Kyrylenko. “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. He accused Russian forces of deliberately targeting civilians attempting to flee, writing: “They want to destroy everything Ukrainian.”

Suliman reported from London and Ilyushina from Riga, Latvia. Annabelle Chapman contributed to this report.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen is set to visit Kyiv on Friday, where she will hold talks with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.

Von der Leyen tweeted an image of herself stepping off a train en route, and wrote that she was “looking forward to Kyiv.” The European Union’s top foreign policy official, Josep Borrell, is also on the trip.

Last month, the leaders of Poland, Slovenia and the Czech Republic made a bold visit to Ukraine’s capital while under attack, in order to to pledge “unequivocal support” to Ukraine, they said.

Looking forward to Kyiv.@JosepBorrellF @eduardheger pic.twitter.com/YFAgGr5Tlc

— Ursula von der Leyen (@vonderleyen) April 8, 2022

Prime Minister of Slovakia Eduard Heger will also join Friday’s trip. He tweeted that the group planned to discuss issues including wheat and other key exports from Ukraine, and the use of neighboring Slovakia as a humanitarian hub, among others issues.

На шляху до Києва!

Going to Kyiv. #StandWithUkraine @vonderleyen @eduardheger pic.twitter.com/Lw8UaQUZgB

— Josep Borrell Fontelles (@JosepBorrellF) April 8, 2022

If Sweden and Finland were to join NATO, Russia would be forced to “rebalance the situation,” Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said Thursday in an interview with Sky News.

The two Nordic countries are historically nonaligned and have maintained a delicate balance of relations with the West and Russia. But top officials in both countries have signaled that Russia’s invasion of Ukraine could mean a change in footing.

The foreign minister of Finland, which shares a land border of more than 800 miles with Russia, said this week that the country would clarify with NATO within weeks what steps Helsinki would need to take to enter the alliance.

If Sweden and Finland were to gain membership, “we’ll have to make our western flank more sophisticated in terms of ensuring our security,” Peskov said.

Moscow has often cited countering the expansion of NATO and Ukraine’s desire to join the 30-member military alliance as key reasons for the ongoing invasion.

“We are deeply convinced that NATO is a machine for confrontation, it’s not a peaceful alliance,” Peskov said. “It was tailored for confrontation and the main purpose of its existence is to confront our country and this is a very unfortunate situation.”

A key tenet of the NATO alliance is Article 5 — an agreement that an armed attack on one member will be viewed as an attack on all, with an obligation to mutual defense.

A new tranche of U.S. sanctions seeking to punish Russia for atrocities in the Kyiv region took aim this week at some unexpected targets: the adult daughters of the Russian president and family members of other officials.

The measures announced Wednesday included sanctions against Katerina Tikhonova and Maria Vorontsova, also known as Mariya Putina, both of whom are widely considered to be Vladimir Putin’s daughters from his first marriage. They also targeted Maria Lavrova, the wife of Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, and their adult child, Ekaterina Lavrova.

For Western policymakers, imposing sanctions on the family members of prominent figures can ramp up pressure on targeted individuals or allow for the seizure of assets listed under a relative’s name.

“We believe that many of Putin’s assets are hidden with family members, and that’s why we’re targeting them,” a senior U.S. administration official said Wednesday.

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Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Thursday that a draft peace agreement presented by Ukraine was an “unacceptable” departure from what had been discussed during talks last week — comments that a Ukrainian official dismissed as “propaganda” and a distraction from potential war crimes in the suburbs of Kyiv.

In a statement, Lavrov said the proposal offered Wednesday by Ukrainian negotiators diverged from the “most important provisions” of an agreement presented by Ukraine in Istanbul on March 29. Missing from the new proposal was a “clear statement” that future NATO-style security guarantees would not apply to Crimea, a Ukrainian peninsula that Russia annexed in 2014.

Moreover, Lavrov claimed the new agreement proposes that prospects for Crimea and the eastern region of Donbas should be discussed in a future meeting between the Ukrainian and Russian presidents. The proposal would also allow for foreign military exercises to be held in Ukraine without Russia’s consent, Lavrov said.

“For sure, at the next round, the Ukrainian side will ask for the withdrawal of troops and will add more preconditions,” Lavrov said. “This intention is clear; this is unacceptable.”

Mykhailo Podolyak, a Ukrainian negotiator and presidential adviser, told Reuters that Lavrov’s comments were meant to distract attention from the war crimes Russia has been accused of committing in Bucha.

“To make any changes to our position to weaken it would be pointless,” he said. “Mr. Lavrov is not directly related to the negotiation process, and so his statements are pure propaganda.”

In the international game of spy vs. spy, Europe has dealt Russia a potentially crippling blow.

Nearly two dozen European countries have expelled hundreds of Russian government personnel from embassies and consulates since Russia invaded Ukraine in late February and more recently was accused of war crimes against civilians. A significant number are probably spies posing as diplomats, according to U.S. and European officials.

Russia depends on those operatives to gather intelligence inside the countries where they serve, so the expulsions could dismantle large parts of Moscow’s spy networks and lead to a dramatic reduction in espionage and disinformation operations against the West, current and former officials said.

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