Horror at the railway station

At least 50 die, including children, in attack on Ukrainians trying to flee

- Luke Harding and Shaun Walker

The Kremlin has been accused of carrying out a “monstrous” war crime after a Russian ballistic missile hit a crowded railway station in the eastern Ukrainian city of Kramatorsk, killing at least 50 people, including four children.

The powerful Tochka-U rocket landed outside the main station building where 4,000 people were waiting to be evacuated yesterday. The authorities had urged residents to leave the region before a Russian military assault expected next week.

At least 87 people were wounded in the strike, said Pavlo Kyrylenko , the governor of Donetsk oblast . Many lost limbs. Surgeons at the city’s hospital were struggling to cope, with numerous patients in a critical condition, Kyrylenko said.

He said Russia had used cluster munitions , and its goal was to “sow panic and fear” and to kill as many civilians as possible. “The enemy knew that this is a city, that this is a crowd of people, this is a railway station,” he added.

Ukraine’s foreign minister, Dmytro Kuleba , accused Moscow of “murderous deliberate slaughter” and vowed: “We will bring each war criminal to justice.”

Boris Johnson, speaking at a press conference in London with the German chancellor, Olaf Scholz, said the attack was “unconscionable”.

The prime minister added: “It shows the depths to which Putin’s vaunted army has sunk … Russia’s crimes in Ukraine will not go un noticed or unpunished.”