Over 30 civilians dead in train station attack

Dusseldorf At least 30 people were killed in a rocket attack on a train station in Kramatorsk, according to Ukrainian sources. More than a hundred others were injured, the Ukrainian railway company said on Friday.

According to Ukrainian railway chief Oleksandr Kamishyn, two rockets hit a building from which evacuation trains depart from eastern Ukraine to safer regions in the west of the country. The information cannot be independently verified.

Russia denies allegations that its troops launched the attack. According to the Ria news agency, the Defense Ministry in Moscow said the type of missile used in the attack was only used by the Ukrainian army.

According to Donetsk Region Governor Pavlo Kyrylenko, thousands of people were in the station at the time of the attack. He published a photo showing several bodies lying on the ground, next to numerous suitcases and bags. Another picture shows emergency services who are obviously trying to extinguish a fire.

A large cloud of gray smoke can be seen. Governor Kyrylenko accused Russia of deliberately targeting civilians. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy also blamed the “occupiers” for the attack. On the other hand, pro-Russian separatists in the self-proclaimed People’s Republic of Donetsk spoke of a Ukrainian rocket attack. Kramatorsk is in the previously Ukrainian-controlled part of the Donetsk region, to which the separatists are claiming.

Troops are apparently withdrawing from northern Ukraine

According to British information, the Russian armed forces have completely withdrawn from northern Ukraine to Belarus and Russia. At least some of these troops would be transferred to eastern Ukraine to fight in the Donbass region, the British Ministry of Defense announced on Twitter based on information from military intelligence.

Latest Defense Intelligence update on the situation in Ukraine – 8 April 2022

Find out more about the UK government’s response: https://t.co/lrfW1pqwQe

🇺🇦 #StandWithUkraine 🇺🇦 pic.twitter.com/WPHtWTQEnp

— Ministry of Defense 🇬🇧 (@DefenceHQ) April 8, 2022

This will probably take some time. The troops would need to be replenished with new soldiers before they could be moved east. A large deployment of troops from the north would likely take at least a week. the governor of the Luhansk region also said that the Russians were concentrating troops in eastern Ukraine. So far, however, they have not breached the Ukrainian defense lines there.

However, Russian shelling of cities in eastern and southern Ukraine continues. Russian troops are also advancing south from the eastern Ukrainian city of Izyum, which remains under their control. Reuters could not immediately verify the report.

According to Ukrainian sources, Russian troops are still concentrating on capturing the southern port city of Mariupol. This was announced by the Ukrainian general staff on Friday. Military experts at the US Institute for the Study of War noted that Russian forces could “probably” complete the capture of Mariupol in the coming days.

Russian state television had reported that the center of the city on the Azov Sea had already been taken. But there are still 3,000 Ukrainian fighters in the city, it said.

Ukraine also wants to set up up to ten escape corridors for civilians in embattled cities on Friday. People trying to flee Mariupol are encouraged to use their own vehicles. Evacuations have repeatedly failed in the past because planned ceasefires were not observed.

According to Russia, an end to the fighting in Ukraine will soon be possible. The military operation in the neighboring country could end in the “foreseeable future” because the goals are being achieved and both the Russian military and Russian peace mediators are doing their jobs, says Presidential Office spokesman Dmitry Peskov.

Regarding the UN General Assembly’s decision to suspend Russia’s membership of the UN Human Rights Council, Peskov says the government in Moscow understands that some countries have been pressured to vote on Thursday to suspend Russia. He did not name any evidence.

EU Commission President travels to Kyiv

EU Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen and EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell arrive in Kyiv. During the train journey from Brussels to the Ukrainian capital, she tells reporters that her main message to President Zelensky is that there is a path for Ukraine to join the EU. “It usually takes years for the EU Council to accept the application for membership, but Ukraine did it in a week or two,” she says. “Our goal is to present Ukraine’s application to the Council this summer.”

Borrell announced the reopening of the European Union Representation in Kyiv. The trip and the ambassador’s return were intended to show “that Ukraine exists, that there is a capital, there is a government and there are representations of other countries,” Borrell said.

In reaction to the massacre of civilians in Bucha, the EU member states decided on further sanctions against Russia on Thursday. These include an import ban on coal from Russia as well as new restrictions on trade and an extensive ban on Russian ships entering EU ports.

Kyiv calls for tougher sanctions – Borodyanka “even more terrible” than Bucha

Zelensky welcomed the sanctions but said they were not enough to stop Russia and end the war. “More sanctions are needed. Tougher sanctions are needed.” At the same time, Selenski called for weapons for his country “with which we can win on the battlefield”. That will be the strongest sanction against Russia, he said in his daily video message.

Zelensky spoke of further atrocities by Russian troops in Ukraine. In the small town of Borodjanka near Kyiv, where clean-up work was underway, it was “much more terrible” than in Bucha. There are “even more victims” of Russian units. Zelensky also asked what would happen when the world found out what Russian units had done in the heavily contested port city of Mariupol. There is on “almost every street” what the world saw after the withdrawal of the Russian troops in Bucha and other places around Kyiv.

Russian company demands investigation into war crimes

The Russian aluminum company Rusal was the first large Russian company to call for an “objective and independent investigation of the crime” in the Ukrainian city of Bucha near Kyiv. With its press release, the group deviates from the language of the Kremlin, which described the killing of civilians in Bucha as “fake”.

In the press release, Rusal does not assign blame directly, but speaks of a shocking crime and calls for “harsh punishment for the perpetrators”. At the same time, the aluminum giant is in favor of a peaceful solution to the Ukraine conflict.

Other recent reports on the war:

One of Rusal’s largest shareholders is billionaire Oleg Deripaska, who is considered to be close to the Kremlin and has been on the US sanctions list since 2018. After the start of the Russian war of aggression, he was one of the first big businessmen to advocate peace negotiations.

Green light for heating cost subsidy in Federal Council

After the Bundestag, the law on the heating cost subsidy also passed the Bundesrat. According to this, a one-person household that receives housing benefit should receive 270 euros, a two-person household 350 euros, and each additional family member will receive 70 euros.

Students and trainees who receive state aid are entitled to a one-off payment of 230 euros. The new aid for companies in Germany should be presented in the afternoon.

The federal government contributes two billion euros to refugee costs

According to the Federal Ministry of the Interior, 320,231 refugees have been registered in Germany since the start of the Russian war of aggression against Ukraine. Russia has been at war against its neighbor since February 24, which triggered a movement of refugees – the number of new arrivals was sometimes over 15,000 people a day in March, and according to public information it has been falling again recently.

To date, the #Federal Police 320,231 #Refugees from the #Ukraine found in Germany. Most of them are women, children and old people. pic.twitter.com/oIVDlSlq5y

— Federal Ministry of the Interior and Homeland (@BMI_Bund) April 8, 2022

The figures come from the Federal Police, which is currently carrying out increased controls. Since there are no fixed border controls at the internal borders, the number of war refugees entering Germany could actually be significantly higher, according to the Ministry of the Interior.

The federal government wants to provide the federal states with a flat rate of two billion euros to support refugees in Germany. The federal government also bears the expenses for basic security. This has advantages for the war refugees: They receive higher benefits and better health care. In addition, they receive earlier support for integration into the labor market and, with the job centers, have a central point of contact for their concerns.

Protest slogans on the Soviet memorial in Berlin

Slogans against the war in Ukraine and against Russian President Vladimir Putin were spray-painted on the Soviet War Memorial in Berlin-Treptow. A police spokesman confirmed the graffiti without further details.

As “Der Tagesspiegel” and the newspaper “Neues Deutschland” reported, some parts of the memorial were marked with slogans such as “Death to all Russians”, “Ukrainian Blood on Russian Hands” or ” Putin = Stalin” sprayed.

More: Rolf Mützenich on the consequences of the Ukraine war: “A new economic order is emerging”

With agency material