Local police said in a statement that the rockets hit a temporary waiting room, where “hundreds of people were waiting for the evacuation train”. “This is further evidence that Russia is brutally killing barbaric Ukrainians with the sole purpose of killing them,” the mayor of Kramatorsk said in a statement. The mayor said about 8,000 people a day went to the station to evacuate for the past two weeks. About 4,000 people were there when the rocket hit. The Kremlin has not yet commented on the allegations. The eastern city of Kramatorsk was one of the first targets of the Russian army when the invasion of Ukraine began on February 24. Ihnatchenko said the Ukrainians had been using the train station since late February to evacuate the area. “The Russians knew that thousands of people were there (at the train station) every day,” he said. Two rockets hit the station, according to the head of Ukraine’s national railway system, Oleksandr Kamyshin. Pavlo Kyrylenko, head of the Donetsk regional military administration, said the Russian military had used Iskander short-range ballistic missiles. The head of CNN’s international presenter, Christian Amanpour, said the attack was reminiscent of an attack on a market in Sarajevo during the Bosnian war, where “ordinary citizens were slaughtered while doing their jobs”. Amanpour said such attacks on civilians tend to harden the West’s resolve and could push the European Union to impose even more sanctions on Russia. Brussels has already approved five rounds of sanctions against Russia since invading Ukraine. Top EU diplomat Josep Borrell has condemned the “indiscriminate attack”, with EU President Charles Michel calling it “scary”. “This is another attempt to close the escape routes for those fleeing this unwarranted war and causing human suffering,” Borrell said. Borrell and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen are scheduled to meet with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in Kyiv this week. The attack comes as Russian forces prepare for a massive operation in eastern Ukraine to occupy the disputed Donbass region, Ukrainian authorities say. Donbas is home to the so-called Donetsk and Luhansk People’s Republics, two separatist enclaves that Russian President Vladimir Putin recognized as independent shortly before Russia invaded Ukraine. For almost eight years, the two regions have been the scene of a low-intensity war between Russian-backed separatists and Ukrainian forces. More than 14,000 people lost their lives in the fighting and now Kyiv is preparing for more casualties. Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmitry Kuleba said the “battle for Donbass” was already under way. He said the fighting there would be reminiscent of the devastating battles of World War II, as the Moscow offensive could include “thousands of tanks, armored vehicles, planes, artillery”. The British secret services estimate that the Russian troops have “completely withdrawn” from northern Ukraine to Belarus and Russia and many could be transferred to eastern Ukraine to fight in Donbas. Ukrainian military officials also say they have seen an increase in Russian forces in the east. CNN’s Joshua Berlinger, Ivan Watson and Khrystyna Bondarenko contributed to this report.
