“It is generally known that these stations are full of innocent people – with women, children, grandparents trying to leave,” said Nate Mook, CEO of the humanitarian organization Central Central Kitchen, which helps distribute food in Kramatorsk. and other victims. areas in Eastern Europe.
Regional Governor Pavlo Kyrylenko said the Kramatorsk station was hit by a Tochka U short-range ballistic missile. Kirilenko said thousands of civilians trying to flee the eastern Ukrainian city were at the station at the time of the attack, which he described as “deliberate”.
Mook was near the train station when the rocket hit and told guest host Dave Seglins at As It Happens what he saw. Here is part of their conversation.
Nate, can you describe to me the moment this attack took place?
We drove from the train station to an elevated passage… I looked down and at the platform, I saw thousands of people, as they were there the previous days. And we passed the station, probably not less than two minutes later, we heard the booms, we heard the explosions. There were probably five to ten of them in quick succession… And we did not know what it was or what was going on. But we headed in, ready to go down to our underground shelter.
One of the warehouse workers told us that he had actually seen one of the rockets. He was as close as he could fly. You could see the wings on the rocket, he said. And he was one of those, at least, who saw that he was intercepted by the Ukrainian air defense.
We were then informed that two of the rockets had hit the train station where we were planning to go next. So we headed there to see what the scene was, and it was devastating.
What did you see?
The extent of the damage was very extensive throughout the station podium and in front of the station. There were broken windows and debris everywhere. There was actually a rocket, whether it was the wreckage of an unexploded ordnance or a shotgun that was sitting on the grass in the parking lot. The words “for children” in Russian were written in paint on this projectile.
The wreckage of a large rocket with the words “for children” in Russian is depicted next to the main building of a railway station in Kramatorsk, in eastern Ukraine, which was hit by a rocket, killing at least 50 people. (Fadel Senna / AFP via Getty Images)
And there were cars that had just caught fire. There were people who were still in these cars as they burned. There were many corpses that had been collected from all over the railway platform. This is an area where we were the day before.
Evacuation trains are a priority for women and children, mothers and their children, as well as the elderly and disabled. In the last two days, we have seen many people in wheelchairs. We have seen seniors being helped on trains by the amazing heroic railway workers. And there is a seating area on the platform. They also had a tent where the elderly could sit as they left. And this is the area that was hit. And so it was just a complete slaughter on the platform. And we saw dozens of victims ourselves and many people were transported by ambulances and stretchers to the local hospitals by the time we arrived.
You have been on the ground in Ukraine for quite some time. What was it like to be in the middle of an attack like this?
I must admit that it was shocking because these railway stations were a lifeline for innocent citizens to leave the cities as they come under attack.
It is generally known that these stations are full of innocent people trying to leave. And so I think, while there was certainly a sense that there was an attack on Kramatorsk as a whole, because it has been said that this will be a focus area now that Russian troops are regrouping and moving north around Kyiv. I think there was such an idea that the train station in this area would not be an immediate target.
Now, of course, we begin to see the barbarity of these attacks in this invasion and what is happening, and we have seen what happened in places like Mariupol… But to experience, to see it, to realize that there is no strategic importance to hitting a a train station like this, with thousands of people being evacuated … It’s just murder, straight away.
And so, you know, I think there’s a sense of shock and just complete, you know, aphorism about what happened today, about the barbarity and inhumanity of it all. And yet there is this determination on the part of the Ukrainian people to fight and do what they can to ensure that their people remain safe.
There is no way I can describe it other than deliberately killing civilians to injure, terrorize, wreak havoc and slaughter.- Nate Mook, CEO of World Central Kitchen
How do you perceive the fact that these innocent citizens are being targeted?
I have been thinking about it a lot since I first arrived in Ukraine τας seeing first hand the impact, meeting people, listening to their stories. At some point you think something will make sense, you need to be able to reconcile what is happening – and you really can’t.
We were in a residential community in Kharkov just a few days ago, delivering meals when a shell hit not far from us. And this is purely residential. There is nothing there but apartment buildings where innocent people lived. There is no way I can describe it other than to deliberately kill civilians to injure, terrorize, really wreak havoc and slaughter.
We were not far from Kramatorsk train station when rockets hit, gathering flour from a pic.twitter.com/JLu8cxu0He
– @ natemook
He has told these people to leave the eastern regions. You described them as desperate to do so. A train station has now been hit. How will this affect people’s ability to get out?
This is a great question and I do not think anyone really knows the full answer. The railways were a lifeline…. Kramatorsk has been relatively peaceful in recent weeks, compared to some other cities in the east and certainly around Kyiv. And so it is not clear that passenger service will return to trains here. This may be the end of the train service to Kramatorsk, and that means people will have to take buses out of town by road.
The people here who are still in this city do not have vehicles. There are not many cars on the streets… The mayor estimates that there are still 80,000 to 90,000 people still in this city. However, many of them are either stuck in their homes or walking. People who had vehicles, who had the ability to leave, have already done so.
Our job here was to support those who are stuck here, making sure they have the food supplies they need, so that we do not end up in a situation like Mariupol, where people are literally starving to death. And also to support these families as they go on this long journey from Kramatorsk. Our local team here that we support and that lives here is determined to continue. And so we will do everything we can to support them while keeping our team as safe as possible.
Written by Olsy Sorokina with archives from CBC News. Interview with Nate Mook produced by Morgan Passi. The Q&A has been processed for scope and clarity.
