Covered bodies of victims of Russia’s missile attack on the railway station in Kramatorsk in eastern Ukraine, April 8, 2022 (CBS News)

EA on China Radio International: Addressing China’s Views on Ukraine War, NATO, and EU

Ukraine War, Day 44: Russia Kills 50+ in Missile Strike on Railway Station in East

UPDATE 1549 GMT:

The Russian military has destroyed another high-value target — a children’s library in Chernihiv in northern Ukraine.

UPDATE 1539 GMT:

Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has hosted UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson in Kyiv this afternoon.

UPDATE 1530 GMT:

The office of Ukraine’s Prosecutor General says at least 176 children have been killed and 324 wounded during the Russian invasion.

The office warned that the figures are incomplete as “work is underway to establish them in places of active hostilities, in temporarily occupied and liberated territories”.

UPDATE 1433 GMT:

Luhansk regional governor says residents in Luhansk city must evacuate because of Russian bombardment and the possibility of a ground offensive.

Serhiy Gaidai said about 30% of residents remain in the region’s cities, towns, and villages despite instructions since Wednesday to leave.

UPDATE 1425 GMT:

Italy is re-opening its embassy in Kyiv immediately after Easter.

Foreign Minister Luigi Di Maio

Speaking after a meeting at the foreign ministry to discuss the war in Ukraine, Di Maio said, “We were the last to leave Kyiv and we will be among the first to go back. At the same time we must intensify diplomatic pressure to bring Putin to the talks table and reach a ceasefire.”

UPDATE 1215 GMT:

A Western official says Russia has reorganized command of Ukraine military operations.

The commander of Russia’s southern military district, Gen Alexander Dvornikov, has been put in charge.

The official said, “That particular commander has a lot of experience of operations of Russian operations in Syria. So we would expect the overall command and control to improve.”

UPDATE 1200 GMT:

Shaun Walker of The Guardian offers more evidence of Russian war crimes in northern Ukraine:

The day the Russians arrived [February 27] in the sleepy, windswept village of Staryi Bykiv, they killed six men. By the time they had departed 32 days later, the soldiers had carried out at least three more killings, destroyed the school, systematically looted dozens of houses and turned much of the central street into a wasteland of charred buildings and rubble.

UPDATE 1150 GMT:

Ukrainian soldiers say Russian troops, occupying the Chernobyl site, showed “lax and careless behaviour” over radioactive material.

The soldiers said the Russians went through the heavily-radiated “Red Forest”, even digging trenches in the area, and brought radioactive material on their shoes.

Internal Affairs Minister Denys Monastyrskiy said Russian troops locked Chernobyl security staff in the plant’s underground nuclear bunker, in tight quarters without access to natural light, fresh air, or communications.

Monastyrskiy said the staff had been taken away by the departing Russians. He believed they are in Russia as prisoners of war, but “today we know nothing about their fate, unfortunately”.

UPDATE 1130 GMT:

Ukraine’s Defense Ministry says Russian forces have committed war crimes in the town of Makariv, 50 km (31 miles) west of Kyiv.

Makariv Mayor Vadym Tokar said on Friday that the slain corpses of 132 people have been recovered.

As she left Ukraine today, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen spoke to reporters about possible Russian war crimes, following her visit to Bucha on Friday (see Original Entry).

My instinct says, if this is not a war crime, what is a war crime. But I am a medical doctor by training, and lawyers have to investigate carefully.

I saw the photos [that the Ukrainian Prime Minister] Denys Shmyhal showed me: killing people as they are walking by.

We could also see with our own eyes that the destruction in the city is targeted into the civilian lives. Residential buildings are no military target.

The EU will discuss war crimes investigations in meetings on Sunday and Monday with the International Criminal Court’s chief prosecutor, Karim Khan.

Khan will see EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell, on Sunday in Luxembourg, and meet EU foreign ministers on Monday.

UPDATE 0625 GMT:

Chancellor Olaf Scholz, meeting UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson in London, said Germany will stop using Russian coal by the summer and Russian oil by the end of 2022.

However, Scholz did not back up Johnson’s claim that Germany will stop importing Russian gas by the middle of 2024. He said only that goal will be achieved “very soon”.

Last Sunday, German Defense Minister Christine Liebknecht called on the European Union to pursue a collective ban on imports of Russian gas.

The Chancellor also indicated Germany will not send 100 Marder tanks to Ukraine, saying Berlin will only provide weapons that are practical and useful.

ORGINAL ENTRY: Ukrainian officials have spoken of a “murderous deliberate slaughter” by “Russian monsters”, killing at least 52 civilians at the Kramatorsk railway station in eastern Ukraine.

At least 87 people were injured when Russian forces fired a missile on the station, filled with more than 4,000 seeking evacuation in anticipation of Moscow’s ground offensive.

Photos and video showed slain and wounded people lying on the ground, surrounded by luggage and debris. Approaching the bodies of about 30 people, all in civilian clothing, placed under plastic sheets next to a kiosk outside the station, a woman said, “I’m looking for my husband. He was here. I can’t reach him.” A survivor, Natalia, recounted:

I was in the station. I heard like a double explosion. I rushed to the wall for protection.

I saw people covered in blood coming into the station and bodies everywhere on the ground. I don’t know if they were just injured or dead.

Outside the station lay the remnant of a Tochka-U missile with an inscription in large white Cyrillic letters: “For [the] children”. Pavlo Kyrylenko, the governor of the Donetsk region, said cluster munitions — banned under international law — were used to “sow panic and fear” and to kill as many people as possible.

Kyrylenko added that numerous victims are in critical condition, many losing limbs. Kramatorsk Mayor Oleksander Honcharenko said hospitals were unable to cope with 30 to 40 surgeons operating at the same time.

“An Evil That Has No Limits”

Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskiy wrote on his Facebook page about “Russian monsters”:

[They] have not abandoned their methods. Lacking the strength and courage to fight with us on the battlefield, they are cynically destroying the civilian population.

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

Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba summarized:

Russians knew that the train station in Kramatorsk was full of civilians waiting to be evacuated. Yet they struck it with a ballistic missile….

This was a deliberate slaughter. We will bring each war criminal to justice.

Russia’s Disinformation

Trying to escape responsibility, the Kremlin insisted that the Russian armed forces had no missions scheduled for Kramatorsk on Friday. The Russian Defense Ministry tried to claim that Ukrainian forces struck their own civilians, saying only Ukraine has Tochka-U missiles.

Analysts quickly debunked the assertions. The Russia-based Conflict Intelligence Team documented Russia use of the Tochka-U in early March in northern Ukraine, and in mid-February the Russian Defense Ministry was boasting about the munition in exercises.

On Wednesday, a Russian strike damaged the railway near Kramotorsk, holding up three trains with evacuees. On Friday morning, before news broke of the mass casualties, the Russian Defense Ministry was celebrating attacks on railway stations in eastern Ukraine.

Von der Leyen in Kyiv: “Matter of Weeks” to Get Ukraine into EU

The Russians struck as European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen and European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell arrived in Kyiv for a meeting with President Zelenskiy.

Von der Leyen condemned “the cynical behavior” of attackers who wrote “For Our Children” on the deadly missile: “I am appalled by the loss of life. My thoughts with the families of the victims.”

She and Borrell visited Bucha, northwest of Kyiv, where hundreds of civilians were killed by Russian forces before they withdrew at the end of March. Visibly moved, Von der Leyen said:

The unthinkable has happened here. We have seen the cruel face of Putin’s army. We have seen the recklessness and the cold-heartedness with which they have been occupying the city.

At the meeting with Zelenskiy, Von der Leyen spoke of a speedy processing of Ukraine’s application to to join the European Union. Handing the President a questionnaire launching the candidacy, she said, “It will not as usual be a matter of years to form this opinion but I think a matter of weeks.”

Pledging her support for Ukraine to “emerge from the war as a democratic country”, Von der Leyen said, “Russia will descend into economic, financial and technological decay, while Ukraine is marching towards the European future. This is what I see.”