Manas Dasgupta
NEW DELHI, April 8: In one of the deadliest strikes since the Russian invasion into Ukraine more than six weeks ago, at least 39 people, including four children, were killed and hundreds of others wounded in a rocket attack on a railway station in the eastern Ukrainian city of Kramatorsk when civilians were trying to leave the war zone and evacuate to safety, Ukraine’s SBU security service said on Friday.
Even as Russia, which was suspended from the UN Human Rights Council on Thursday for the alleged Bucha genocide, denied that it was behind the rocket attack, the Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky described Russia as an “evil with no limits” after the rocket attack. “They are cynically destroying the civilian population. This is an evil that has no limits. And if it is not punished, it will never stop,” he said.
The journalists who were on the scene of the deadly strike saw the bodies of at least 30 people grouped and lying under plastic sheets next to the station, before being loaded onto a military truck. Blood was pooling on the ground and packed bags were strewn outside the building in the immediate aftermath of the attack. The remains of a large rocket with the words “for our children” in Russian was lying just adjacent to the main building perhaps negating the Russian denial of being the architect of the rocket attack.
Zelensky reported that more than 300 were injured in the rocket attack on the railway station being used for evacuation of the civilians to relatively safer parts of the country. Ukraine’s state railway company had earlier reported that two Russian rockets have struck a railway station in Kramatorsk in eastern Ukraine, causing casualties but gave no other details. “Two rockets hit Kramatorsk railway station. There are casualties,” Ukrainian Railways had said in a statement. The “new mayor” of Mariupol, put in place by pro-Russian forces, announced that around 5,000 civilians have died in the besieged south-eastern Ukrainian port city.
Russian troops retreating from this northern Ukrainian city left behind crushed buildings, streets littered with destroyed cars and residents in dire need of food and other aid — images that added fuel to Kyiv’s calls Thursday for more Western help to halt Moscow’s next offensive. Dozens of people lined up to receive bread, diapers and medicine from vans parked outside a shattered school now serving as an aid-distribution point in Chernihiv, which Russian forces besieged for weeks as part of their attempt to sweep south towards the capital before retreating. Civilians in eastern Ukraine struggled to evacuate Friday as Russia redirects its firepower, with Zelensky warning of “even more horrific” devastation being uncovered around the capital.
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said he expected NATO members to send Kyiv the weapons it needs but insisted they had to act quickly as Russia readies another major offensive. “Either you help us now – and I’m speaking about days, not weeks, or your help will come too late, and many people will die, many civilians will lose their homes, many villages will be destroyed. Exactly because this help came too late,” Kuleba said after meeting NATO foreign ministers in Brussels.
India has offered to help to bring about a solution to the Russia – Ukraine conflict. The Indian External Affairs minister S Jaishankar told the Lok Sabha that India would be “glad” to help in bringing about a resolution to the crisis in Ukraine. Dr. Jaishankar said Russia was “a very important partner” but also held that India was against the conflict. He acknowledged the support provided by Russia, Ukraine and even Indian nationals based in Eastern Europe during Operation Ganga to evacuate Indian students from Ukraine.
“In terms of diplomacy, India continues to press forcefully for an immediate cessation of hostilities and an end to violence. We encourage talks between Ukraine and Russia, including at the level of their Presidents. The Prime Minister has spoken to them both in this regard. This was precisely the message that was conveyed to Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov when he was in Delhi. If India can be of any assistance in this matter, we will be glad to contribute,” Dr. Jaishankar said, reiterating India’s commitment to supply humanitarian goods to Ukraine.
Ukrainian allies tightened the screws on Moscow further in response to shocking images from Bucha and other regions around Kyiv, with the European Union announcing an embargo on Russian coal and a ban on Russian vessels at its ports.
Britain added Russian President Vladimir Putin’s daughters to its sanctions list, mirroring moves by the United States. Britain and the European Union have added two adult daughters of Russian President Vladimir Putin to their sanctions list, as part of a new package of measures targeting Russia’s economy, businessmen and oligarchs in retaliation for the Kremlin’s invasion of Ukraine.
The British government said on Friday that it is imposing asset freezes and travel bans on Putin’s daughters Katerina Tikhonova and Maria Vorontsova, as well as Yekaterina Vinokurova, daughter of Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov. The EU included Maria Vorontsova and Katerina Tikhonova in its updated list of individuals facing an assets freeze and travel ban.
French President Emmanuel Macron said he apprehended Russian forces to step up their attacks in the eastern Donbas region of Ukraine in the coming weeks, leading to further “difficult scenes” after the reported atrocities against civilians near Kyiv. The defence ministers of Turkey, Britain and Italy will meet in Istanbul later on Friday to discuss Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and security ties between the three NATO allies.
While Japan expelled eight Russian diplomats saying it was in response to Russia’s actions in Ukraine including the killing of civilians, the Foreign Minister of Turkey, which is hosting negotiations between Russia and Ukraine, said the recent images from Bucha and other areas have “overshadowed” what had been an “emerging positive atmosphere.”
The World food prices hit their “highest levels ever” in March as Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has disrupted wheat and coarse grain exports, the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization said on Friday. “Russia’s invasion of Ukraine sent “shocks” through markets for staple grains and vegetable oils,” the FAO said. Russia and Ukraine, whose vast grain-growing regions are among the world’s main breadbaskets, account for a huge share of the globe’s exports in several major commodities, including wheat, vegetable oil and corn.
The United Nations General Assembly on Thursday evening voted to suspend Russia from the UN Human Rights Council over reports of “gross and systematic violations and abuses of human rights” by invading Russian troops in Ukraine. The US-led push garnered 93 votes in favour, while 24 countries voted no and 58 countries including India abstained. It is only the second-ever suspension of a country from the council after Libya in 2011.