Ukraine demands tough global response to train station missile attack

LVIV, Ukraine, April 9 (Reuters) – Ukraine called for more weapons and tougher sanctions after it blamed Russia for a missile attack that killed at least 52 people at a train station packed with fleeing women, children and the elderly. of the threat of a Russian. offensive in the east.

President Volodymyr Zelenskiy called the attack in Kramatorsk, in the eastern Donetsk region, a deliberate attack on civilians. The city’s mayor estimated that 4,000 people were gathered there at the time.

The United States, the European Union and Britain condemned the incident that took place on the same day that European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen visited kyiv to show solidarity and speed up Ukraine’s accession process.

“We expect a strong global response to this war crime,” Zelenskiy said in a video posted Friday night.

“Any delay in providing… weapons to Ukraine, any refusal, can only mean that the politicians in question want to help the Russian leadership more than us,” he said, calling for an energy embargo and for all Russian banks to be cut off. the world system

Regional Governor Pavlo Kyrylenko said the station was hit by a Tochka U short-range ballistic missile containing cluster munitions, which explode in mid-air and drop deadly bombs over a wider area. Read more

Reuters was unable to verify what happened in Kramatorsk.

Cluster munitions are banned under a 2008 convention. Russia has not signed it, but has previously denied using such weapons in Ukraine. Read more

The six-week-old Russian incursion has forced more than 4 million people to flee abroad, killed or injured thousands, left a quarter of the population homeless and turned cities to rubble as it drags on. more than Russia expected.

Russian families buried their dead relatives in Ukraine with gun salutes and military bands on Friday, a day after the Kremlin first said it had lost a significant number of troops.

In Washington, a senior defense official said the United States was “not buying the Russians’ denial that they were not responsible” and believed Russian forces had fired a short-range ballistic missile in the train station attack. Read more

The Russian Defense Ministry was quoted by the RIA news agency as saying that the missiles that reportedly hit the station were used only by Ukraine’s military and that Russia’s armed forces had no assigned targets in Kramatorsk on Friday.

Russia has denied targeting civilians since President Vladimir Putin ordered the invasion on February 24 in what he called a “special military operation” to demilitarize and “denazify” Russia’s southern neighbor.

Ukraine and its Western supporters call that a pretext for an unprovoked invasion.

Ukrainian officials now await an attempt by Russian forces to gain full control of Donetsk and neighboring Luhansk in the east, both of which have been partly controlled by Moscow-backed separatists since 2014.

The Kremlin said on Friday that the “special operation” could end in the “foreseeable future” and that its goals would be achieved through the work of the Russian military and peace negotiators.

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg has warned that the war could last for months or even years. Read more

The White House said it would support attempts to investigate the Kramatorsk attack, which British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said showed “the depths to which Putin’s vaunted army has sunk.”

At least 52 people were killed in the blast, according to the regional military administration.

‘NOT AS USUAL’

The remains of the missile had the words “for children” on the side. Russia has for years accused Ukraine of killing civilians, including children, with attacks in separatist-controlled eastern Ukraine.

As Russia concentrates in the east, Ukrainian forces said late Friday they had repelled seven Russian attacks, destroying nine tanks, another seven armored vehicles and two helicopters. Reuters was unable to independently verify that.

Following a partial Russian pullout near kyiv, a forensic team began exhuming a mass grave in the city of Bucha on Friday. Authorities say hundreds of dead civilians have been found there.

Russia has called allegations that its forces executed civilians in Bucha a “monstrous forgery” intended to denigrate its military and justify further sanctions.

Visiting the city on Friday, von der Leyen said he had witnessed the “unthinkable”.

Later, he handed Zelenskiy a questionnaire that formed a starting point for the EU to decide on membership, telling him: “As usual, it will not be a matter of years to form this opinion, but I think it will be a matter of weeks.” . Read more

Austrian Chancellor Karl Nehammer is scheduled to visit on Saturday for talks with Zelenskiy.

The bloc also overcame some divisions to adopt new sanctions, including import bans on coal, wood, chemicals and other products along with freezing EU assets belonging to Putin’s daughters and more oligarchs.

EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said the possibility of an oil ban would be discussed on Monday, but called oil sanctions “a big elephant in the room” for a continent that relies heavily on energy. Russian.

The United States on Friday expanded its export restrictions against Russia and its ally Belarus, restricting access to imports of items such as fertilizers and pipe valves.

Ukraine on Thursday secured a new NATO commitment to supply a wide range of weapons.

Slovakia has donated its S-300 air defense system to Ukraine, while Britain is sending another 100 million pounds ($130 million) of military support.

In Prague, defense sources said the Czech Republic had delivered tanks, rocket launchers, howitzers and infantry fighting vehicles and would send more. Read more

Additional reporting by James Mackenzie at the Yahidne, Ukraine and Reuters bureaus; Written by Costas Pitas; Edited by Daniel Wallis and Michael Perry

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