A Ukrainian police officer bends over bodies covered with tarpaulin after the rocket attack in Kramatorsk, eastern Ukraine

Kramatorsk (Ukraine) (AFP) - Evacuations resumed on Saturday from the town in eastern Ukraine where a missile strike killed 52 people at a railway station as civilians fled a feared Russian offensive.

Six weeks into Russia’s invasion, Moscow has shifted its focus to eastern and southern Ukraine after stiff resistance ended plans to swiftly capture Kyiv.

Civilians trapped in the region have faced brutal conditions, and EU leaders met with President Volodymyr Zelensky in a show of support as news emerged of the devastating attack on Kramatorsk’s station. The 52 victims included five children.

With thousands killed in fighting and more than 11 million fleeing their homes or the country, Zelensky said the strike marked a fresh atrocity and called called for a “firm global response” to the bloody incident.

“This is another Russian war crime for which everyone involved will be held accountable,” he said in a video message.

“World powers have already condemned Russia’s attack on Kramatorsk. We expect a firm global response to this war crime.”

Zelensky later said he remained open to talks with Russia to resolve the conflict.

US President Joe Biden accused Russia of being behind a “horrific atrocity” in the de facto capital of the Ukrainian-controlled Donetsk region, and France condemned the strike as a “crime against humanity”.

Moscow denied responsibility for the rocket attack on Friday morning, which killed 52 and injured a further 109 people, according to the latest official count.

The Ukrainian president said the bombing had been reported in Russia before the missiles had even landed and called for more weaponry to counter Moscow’s aggression.

“I am sure that the victory of Ukraine is just a matter of time, and I will do everything to reduce this time,” he added.

Minibuses assembled at a church in Kramatorsk to collect shaken evacuees on Saturday. Almost 80 people, most of them elderly, took shelter overnight in the building, not far from the targeted station.

“There were around 300 to 400 people who rushed here after the strike,” Yevgeny, a member of the Protestant church, told AFP.

“They were traumatised. Half of them ran to shelter in the cellar, others wanted to leave as soon as possible. Some were evacuated by bus in the afternoon (on Friday).”

The station in Kramatorsk was being used as the main evacuation hub for refugees from the parts of the eastern Donbas region still under Ukrainian control.

AFP reporters at the station saw the remains of the missile tagged in white paint with the words “for our children” in Russian. The expression is frequently used by pro-Russian separatists in reference to their losses since the start of the first Donbas war in 2014.

The governor of Donetsk claimed a missile with cluster munitions was used in the attack, according to remarks published by the Interfax news agency.

- ‘All this horror’ -

The remains of one rocket in the aftermath of the attack on the railway station

The strike came as European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell were in Kyiv for talks with Zelensky and to visit the scene of civilian killings in Bucha.

Russia faces “decay” because of ever tougher sanctions and Ukraine had a “European future”, von der Leyen said at a news conference with Zelensky.

“My instinct says: If this is not a war crime, what is a war crime?” she said of the Bucha killings, calling for a thorough investigation.

Joining the Western solidarity campaign, Austrian Chancellor Karl Nehammer arrived in Kyiv and was expected to travel to Bucha later Saturday.

Thousands of Ukrainians have been killed in the weeks since Russia's invasion

Russian troops appear to be seeking to create a long-sought land link between occupied Crimea and the Moscow-backed separatist territories of Donetsk and Lugansk in the Donbas region.

Civilians have been urged to flee the heavy shelling there that has laid waste to towns and complicated evacuation efforts.

The defence ministry in Moscow said Saturday that Russian forces had destroyed an ammunition depot in the Dnipro region, and struck 85 Ukrainian military targets in the previous 24 hours.

“There is no secret – the battle for Donbas will be decisive. What we have already experienced – all this horror – it can multiply,” warned Lugansk regional governor Sergiy Gaiday.

In the south, the Black Sea port city of Odessa braced for rocket attacks, imposing a weekend curfew.

Residents and Ukrainian officials returning after a Russian withdrawal from an area near Kyiv, meanwhile, were taking stock of the scale of the devastation.

Bucha – where authorities say hundreds were killed, some with their hands bound – has become a byword for the brutality allegedly inflicted under Russian occupation.

But Zelensky warned worse was being uncovered.

“They have started sorting through the ruins in Borodianka,” northwest of Kyiv, he said. “It is much more horrific there. There are even more victims of Russian occupiers.”

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen (C) and European Union High Representative for Foreign Affairs Josep Borrell are shown destroyed Russian army vehicles during their visit to the town of Bucha

Conflict in the area has wrought massive destruction and bodies are only now being retrieved, with 27 recovered from two destroyed buildings, according to Prosecutor General Iryna Venediktova.

Fresh allegations also emerged from Obukhovychi, northwest of Kyiv, where villagers told AFP they were used as human shields.

- ‘Help us now’ -

Moscow has denied targeting civilians, but growing evidence of atrocities has galvanised Ukraine’s allies in the EU, which has approved an embargo on Russian coal and the closure of its ports to Russian vessels.

Russia has been suspended from the UN Human Rights Council over its invasion

The bloc has frozen 30 billion euros ($33 billion) in assets from blacklisted Russian and Belarusian individuals and companies, it said Friday.

It also blacklisted Putin’s two adult daughters and more than 200 others as part of its latest sanctions package, according to an official list.

The United States and Britain had already sanctioned the Russian leader’s daughters.

Borrell has pledged the EU would supply 7.5 million euros to train Ukrainian prosecutors to investigate war crimes allegedly committed by Russia.

Ukraine has welcomed new pressure on Moscow, but it continues to push for harsher sanctions and more heavy weaponry.

“Either you help us now – and I’m speaking about days, not weeks – or your help will come too late and many people will die, many civilians will lose their homes, many villages will be destroyed,” foreign minister Dmytro Kuleba said after meeting NATO foreign ministers in Brussels.

Britain said Friday it was sending Ukraine more “high-grade military equipment” including Starstreak anti-aircraft missiles and 800 anti-tank missiles, while Slovakia said it had given Ukraine an S-300 air defence system.

Western companies have joined the bid to isolate Russia, with US video hosting service YouTube blocking the channel of the Russian lower house of parliament. Russian officials warned of reprisals.

As sanctions bite, credit rating agency S and P Global Ratings downgraded Russia’s foreign currency payments rating to “selective default” after Moscow paid a dollar-denominated debt in rubles this week.

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