Ukraine says dozens killed in rocket strike on rail evacuation hub

Dozens of people have died and many more wounded in a rocket strike at a railway station packed with civilians fleeing fighting and a threat of a major Russian offensive in Ukraine east.

As regional authorities rushed civilians out of harm’s way, European Union leaders arrived in Kyiv to offer Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy support and reassurance that there will be a path to EU membership for Ukraine.

Pavlo Kyrylenko, governor of the Donetsk region where the Kramatorsk station is located, said at least 39 people were killed and 87 wounded, with many in serious condition, in what he described as a deliberate attack by Russian forces.

“They wanted to sow panic and fear, they wanted to take as many civilians as possible,” he said, adding that thousands of civilians had been at the station when the rockets struck.

Kyrylenko also said the rocket that struck the station contained cluster munitions, which explode in mid-air, spraying small lethal bomblets over a wider area. Their use is banned under a 2008 convention.

Kyrylenko published a photograph online showing several bodies on the ground beside piles of suitcases and other luggage. Reuters could not immediately verify the photo.

The Russian defense ministry was quoted by RIA news agency as saying the missiles said to have struck the station were used only by Ukraine’s military and that Russia’s armed forces had no targets assigned in Kramatorsk on Friday.

Zelenskiy said no Ukrainian troops were at the station. “Russian forces (fired) on an ordinary train station, on ordinary people, there were no soldiers there,” he told Finland’s parliament in a video address.

The White House decried the “horrific and devastating images” of the deadly train station attack.

EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell, in Kyiv with the head of the EU executive Ursula von der Leyen, also condemned the strike. “This is yet another attempt to close escape routes for those fleeing this unjustified war and cause,” he said on Twitter.

Moscow has denied targeting civilians since invading Ukraine on February 24 in what it calls a “special military operation” to demilitarize and “denazify” its neighbour.

Ukraine and Western supporters call that a pretext for an unprovoked invasion.