Russia was focusing its attack, which included cruise missiles fired by its naval forces, on the eastern region of Donbass, the British ministry said in a daily update. He said he expected airstrikes to increase in the south and east as Russia sought to build a land bridge between Crimea, which Moscow annexed in 2014, and Donbass, but Ukrainian forces were blocking the advance. Sign up now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com Register Ukrainian officials say bombings have increased in the region in recent days as more Russian forces arrive. “The occupiers are continuing to prepare for the attack in the east of our country in order to establish full control over the territories of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions,” said the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. President Volodymyr Zelenskiy described the strike at the Kramatorsk train station in the eastern Donetsk region as a deliberate attack on civilians. The mayor of the city estimated that 4,000 people were gathered there at that time. Regional Governor Pavlo Kyrylenko said the station was hit by a Tochka U short-range ballistic missile containing cluster munitions, which exploded in the air, spraying bombs over a wider area. read more Reuters could not verify what happened in Kramatorsk. Cluster munitions are banned under a 2008 agreement. Russia has not signed it, but has previously denied using such weapons in Ukraine. read more The United States, the European Union and Britain have condemned the incident, which 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 firm global response to this war crime,” Zelensky said in a video released late Friday. “Any delay in the supply of … weapons to Ukraine, any denials, can only mean that these politicians want to help the Russian leadership more than we do,” he said, calling for an energy embargo and a cut off from all Russian banks. the world system. The Russian invasion, which lasted more than six weeks, forced more than 4 million people to flee abroad, killing or injuring thousands, leaving a quarter of the population homeless and turning cities into ruins as Russia dragged on longer than expected. In Washington, a senior defense official said the United States was “not buying into the Russians’ denial that they were not responsible,” and believed that Russian forces had fired a short-range ballistic missile at the train station. read more The Russian Defense Ministry quoted RIA News as saying that the missiles allegedly hitting the station were used only by the Ukrainian army and that the Russian armed forces had no targets in Kramatorsk on Friday. Russia has denied targeting civilians since President Vladimir Putin ordered a “special military operation” on Feb. 24 to demilitarize and “demilitarize” Russia’s southern neighbor. Ukraine and its Western backers call it a pretext for an unprovoked invasion. The Kremlin said on Friday that the “special operation” could end in the “foreseeable future” and that its goals could 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 has said it will support efforts to investigate the Kramatorsk attack, which British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said showed “the depths in which Putin’s famous army has sunk.” JUDICIAL INVESTIGATION After a partial withdrawal from Russia near Kyiv, a team of medical examiners on Friday began exhuming a mass grave in the city of Bucha. Authorities say hundreds of dead people have been found there. Russia has called allegations that its forces executed civilians in Bukhara a “monstrous forgery” aimed at discrediting its military and justifying further sanctions. Visiting the city on Friday, von der Leyen said he had seen the “unthinkable”. He later handed Zelensky a questionnaire that was the starting point for the EU to decide on membership, saying: “It will not be a matter of years to form this opinion, but I think it is a matter of weeks.” read more Austrian Chancellor Carl Nehammer is due to visit Zelensky on Saturday for talks. The bloc has also overcome some divisions to adopt new sanctions, including bans on imports of coal, wood, chemicals and other products as well as the freezing of assets belonging to Putin’s daughters and more oligarchs. EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said the possibility of an oil embargo would be discussed on Monday, but described the oil sanctions as “a big elephant in the room” for a continent that relies heavily on Russian energy. Ten humanitarian corridors to evacuate people from the besieged areas have been agreed for Saturday, said Deputy Prime Minister of Ukraine Iryna Vereshchuk. The planned corridors include one for people moving by private transport from the ruined southeastern city of Mariupol. Sign up now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com Register Additional references by James Mackenzie in the offices of Yahidne in Ukraine and Reuters. Does Costas Pita, Michael Perry write? Edited by: Daniel Wallis, Robert Birsel Our role models: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
