At least 50 Ukrainian civilians were killed, including children, this Friday, April 8, in a missile attack on the station in the city of Kramatorsk, in eastern Ukraine, an area from which thousands of people are fleeing for fear of an imminent Russian offensive.

Among the fatalities, there are four minors, the mayor of the town, Alexander Goncharenko, reported on Twitter, according to among the dozens of injured there are “very serious” cases, as well as people who have lost arms and legs.

This attack, in which 100 people were also injured, is one of the bloodiest in the six weeks of war and comes at a time of international outrage at the atrocities that are beginning to be discovered in Ukraine.

The governor of Donetsk, Pavlo Kirilenko, also insisted through his account on that social network that it was an attack on a concentration point “known” as a place to speed up the evacuation of the population.

Kirilenko blamed “the Russian fascists” for having directed their attack with “Tochka-U” missiles in a premeditated action against the civilian population.

The Donbas authorities had been urging the civilian population to leave these regions for two days and warning that Russian troops were preparing a major offensive to gain absolute control of them.

On the other hand, Oleksiy Arestovych, advisor to the head of the Office of the Ukrainian President, assured that the attack was preceded by a thorough reconnaissance of the target by Russia.

“Russian troops attacked the Kramatorsk railway station with an Iskander-type missile. It must be understood that attacks of this type are preceded by a thorough reconnaissance of the target, at least with drones, observing the terrain, ”he said on his Facebook account, which is collected by the Ukrinform agency.

According to Arestovych, it is “too expensive a missile” and it is “too difficult and risky to organize attacks of this type”.

“They saw perfectly well that they were beating civilians, first thing in the morning, that at that time there were thousands of people trying to leave the station, families, children, the elderly,” he added.

The President of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelensky, assured in a statement through his Facebook account that this attack on a train station is proof that Russia “exterminates” the civilian population.

“This is an evil that has no limits. And if it is not punished, it will never stop,” Zelensky added.

While messages of condemnation from Ukraine were being sent, Russia denied responsibility for the attack: “On April 8, the Russian armed forces did not have fire missions in the city of Kramatorsk and they were not planned,” the Ministry said. Defense in a statement.

In its last part, issued last morning, the High General Staff of the Ukrainian army stated that Russia was continuing to prepare its offensive in the east, in addition to continuing to besiege Mariupol, in the Sea of Azov.

“On the territory of Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts, seven enemy attacks were repulsed in the last 24 hours,” Ukraine’s military high command said.

Pro-Russian forces had claimed Thursday that they had captured the center of Mariupol, the strategic port on the Sea of Azov that has been besieged and shelled by Russian troops for days, but Ukraine said its troops were still holding out.

Russia already warned, by ending the first phase of its military operation in Ukraine, that its operations would be concentrated in Donbas, where the self-proclaimed separatist republics are located, whose recognition by Moscow preceded the invasion of Ukraine.

Russia accuses Ukraine of intentionally shooting at Kramatorsk train station

Russia on Friday accused the Ukrainian armed forces of deliberately firing a missile at the Kramatorsk station in eastern Ukraine, an attack that killed at least 50 people.

“The objective of this attack orchestrated by the Kyiv regime against the Kramatorsk railway station was to prevent the civilian population from leaving the city so that it could be used as a human shield,” the Russian defense ministry said.