Kramatorsk is located in Donetsk Province in eastern Ukraine, where fierce fighting is taking place. Russia is trying to control the entire Donbass region, where Donetsk is located, and parts of the region in the hands of pro-Russian separatists.
Donetsk Governor Pavlo Kirilenko said that thousands of people were waiting to be taken to safer areas of Ukraine at the Kramatorsk train station when two rockets landed. Kramatorsk is one of the places in the far east of Ukraine that can still be reached by train.
So the city is an important place for evacuating people in eastern Ukraine. Yesterday, three trains carrying evacuees were stranded in the same area after an air strike on a railway track.
Governor Kirilenko accuses the Russians of deliberately killing civilians. “They wanted to create panic and fear, and they wanted to kill as many civilians as possible,” he said. With the bombing, Kirilenko says, Russia wants to make the evacuation of civilians more difficult.
According to the governor, other civilian targets, including medical infrastructure, will be bombed.
cluster munition
Ukraine’s Defense Ministry says cluster munitions have been used. This consists of several small bombs, which can cause many casualties in a large area. The Kremlin denies carrying out the missile attack.
Part of the missile fell in Kramatorsk. “For the children,” says the missile in Russian. It is not clear what exactly this means. Russia claims that it wants to “liberate” the region from Ukraine and “protect” children from the Ukrainian government.
