(Reuters) – The United States, the European Union and Britain condemned a missile attack on a Ukraine train station packed with women, children and the elderly fleeing the threat of a Russian offensive in the east. Officials said at least 52 people were killed.
FIGHTING
* Ukraine said the station in the city of Kramatorsk was hit by a Tochka U short-range ballistic missile containing cluster munitions, which explode mid-air, spraying lethal bomblets. The city mayor estimated about 4,000 people were at the station. Reuters could not verify the reports.
* Russia’s defence 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.
* Ukraine now expects an attempt by Russian forces to gain full control of Donetsk and neighbouring Luhansk in the east, both partly held by Moscow-backed separatists since 2014.
* The Kremlin said the “special operation” in Ukraine could end in the “foreseeable future” with its aims being achieved by the Russian military and peace negotiators.
* NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg warned of a war that could last months or even years.
HUMAN IMPACT
* Forensic investigators began exhuming a mass grave in the town of Bucha, laying out the bodies of civilians who Ukrainian officials say were killed during a Russian invasion in what amounted to war crimes. Russia says the reports of war crimes are a “monstrous forgery”. [
* Russian families buried relatives killed in Ukraine with automatic gun salutes and military brass bands, a day after the Kremlin admitted for the first time that it had lost significant numbers of troops.
DIPLOMACY, ECONOMY
* European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen visited Kyiv to show solidarity and accelerate Ukraine’s membership process.
* Britain added Vladimir Putin’s daughters to its sanctions list, mirroring moves by the United States, in what it said was an effort to target the lifestyles of those in the Russian president’s inner circle.
QUOTES
* “We expect a firm global response to this war crime,” Zelenskiy said in a video referring to the train station attack. “Any delay in providing … weapons to Ukraine, any refusals, can only mean the politicians in question want to help the Russian leadership more than us.”
(Compiled by Michael Perry)
