Ukraine: Civilians die in rocket attack on train station / Fighting continues in Mariupol

Kyiv - At least 35 people were killed in the rocket fire at the train station in the eastern Ukrainian city of Kramatorsk. According to Ukrainian sources, more than 100 other people were injured. An AFP reporter reported at least 20 bodies.

Vice-President Mykhailo Fedorov of Ukraine blamed Russia for the deaths, which were civilians , in a statement on Twitter. "Russia is evil and will definitely be punished," he wrote. The Kremlin denied the allegations.

According to British intelligence, Moscow has completed the redeployment of its troops for the time being. The Russian units have been withdrawn from the Kyiv region and are now being reinforced in order to be able to intervene in the fighting in eastern Ukraine. However, that will take at least a week.

Meanwhile, reports of Russian attacks on civilians are mounting. In the city of Borodjanka near Kyiv, numerous other dead were recovered from the rubble. Ukrainian Interior Minister Denys Monastyrskyj stated that the region had been particularly hard hit by the war.

Most of Mariupol's housing has been destroyed
The new city government of Mariupol, installed by pro-Russian separatists, reported that around 5,000 civilians had died there during the fighting so far. The Russian news agency Tass quoted an official as saying that 60 to 70 percent of the city's apartments had also been destroyed.

In the port city on the Black Sea there is still a fight over a large steel works and the port. According to the Russian side, 3,000 to 3,500 Ukrainians are still resisting there. These are regular soldiers and armed civilians. Mariupol is of high strategic importance. The city is part of the land link between the Crimean Peninsula, annexed by Russia in 2014, and the separatist-controlled areas of eastern Ukraine.

Source: Junge Freiheit