Russia-Ukraine live updates: Five children among 50 dead in Russian attack on busy train station - The Globe and Mail

Slovakia's Prime Minister Eduard Heger (C-L) stands next to European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, and European Union High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Josep Borrel as they visit a mass grave in the town of Bucha, northwest of Kyiv on April 8, 2022.SERGEI SUPINSKY/AFP/Getty Images

Here are the latest updates on the war in Ukraine:

• A rocket strike on a busy railway station in east Ukraine has killed dozens of evacuees, including at least 5 children, who were trying to flee the country; Russia has denied responsibility for the attack
• According to reports, the rocket casing found on the scene had the phrase ‘for the children’ scrawled on its side
• At least 100 have suffered serious injuries, including loss of limbs
• This video show the disturbing aftermath of the attack
• Forensic investigators began exhuming a mass grave in Bucha on Friday, wrapping in black plastic and laying out the bodies of civilians who officials say were killed while Russian troops occupied the town just northwest of Kyiv.

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1:20 p.m. ET

Ukrainian forensic investigators start exhuming bodies from Bucha mass grave

Forensic technicians exhume the bodies of civilians who Ukrainian officials say were killed during Russia's invasion and then buried in a mass grave in the town of Bucha, outside Kyiv, Ukraine April 8, 2022.VALENTYN OGIRENKO/Reuters

Forensic investigators began exhuming a mass grave in Bucha on Friday, wrapping in black plastic and laying out the bodies of civilians who officials say were killed while Russian troops occupied the town just northwest of Kyiv.

Ruslan Kravchenko, from the prosecutor’s office in Bucha, said they had exhumed 20 bodies, 18 of whom had firearms and shrapnel wounds. He said two women had been identified, one of whom had worked at a supermarket in the town centre.

“There are witnesses who can confirm that these people were killed by the Russian forces. Without any reason, they were just walking down the street or being evacuated,” he told Reuters.

“Some of them were just speaking Ukrainian.”

– Reuters

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12:55 p.m. ET

Ruble on mend, Russia bank cuts interest rate

Russia’s central bank says it’s lowering a key interest rate, and said more cuts could be on the way.

The decision indicates the bank thinks strict capital controls and other severe measures are stabilizing Russia’s currency and financial system despite intense pressure from Western sanctions over the war in Ukraine.

The bank said Friday it lowered its benchmark rate from 20 per cent to 17 per cent, effective Monday. It had raised the rate from 9.5% on Feb. 28 – four days after the invasion – as a way to support the ruble’s plunging exchange rate.

A currency collapse would worsen already high inflation for Russian shoppers by ballooning the cost of imported goods.

The rate increase shows how the central bank has managed to stabilize key aspects of the economy with severe controls, artificially propping up the ruble to allow it to rebound to levels seen before the invasion of Ukraine – even as the West piles on more sanctions.

– The Associated Press

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12:05 p.m. ET

Ukraine’s prosecutor general says Kramatorsk rail attack was a ‘crime against humanity’

Ukraine’s Prosecutor General Iryna Venediktova on Friday said a deadly missile strike on a rail station packed with evacuees in the eastern city of Kramatorsk was a “crime against humanity.”

At least 50 people were killed and dozens wounded in the attack that Ukrainian authorities say was carried out by Russian forces.

The Russian defence ministry has denied its troops were behind the strike.

– Reuters

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11:21 a.m. ET

Watch: Disturbing video captures the aftermath of attack on railway station

Warning: this video includes graphic content: At least 50 people have been killed, including five children, in a strike on a rail station in the eastern Ukrainian city of Kramatorsk, the regional governor said on Friday, April 8. Russia denies responsibility for the attack and Ukrainian president Volodymr Zelensky said in a statement “this is an evil that has no limits.”

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11:14 a.m. ET

U.K. promises further $130 million of military equipment for Ukraine

Britain will send Ukraine a further 100 million pounds ($130 million) of military support to Ukraine, Prime Minister Boris Johnson said on Friday after a meeting with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz.

“The U.K. will send a further 100 million pounds’ worth of high-grade military equipment to Ukraine’s armed forces, including more Starstreak anti-aircraft missiles … another 800 anti-tank missiles and precision munitions capable of lingering in the sky until directed to their target,” Johnson said.

Britain will also provide more helmets, night-vision equipment and body armour, Johnson added at the news conference.

– Reuters

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10:08 a.m. ET

Death toll from missile attack in east Ukraine rises to 50, says governor

Men carry a killed body after Russian shelling at the railway station in Kramatorsk, Ukraine, Friday, April 8, 2022.Andriy Andriyenko/The Associated Press

At least 50 people were killed, including five children, in a missile strike on a rail station in the eastern Ukrainian city of Kramatorsk, regional governor Pavlo Kyrylenko said on Friday.

In an online post updating an earlier preliminary death toll of 39, Kyrylenko said the dead included victims who had died of their wounds after being taken to hospital or medical centres. Read more.

– Reuters

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9:12 a.m. ET

Higher food prices from Ukraine war will push up to 47 million people into acute hunger, UN says

Carine Aimée Kamdem, who sells chickens in a market in Cameroon’s port city of Douala, had to make a hard choice this month. A sharp rise in prices has left her unable to afford bread for her four children, so she was forced to search for cheaper options.

Now her children get lower-quality food, such as local fried doughnuts known as “puff puff.” It leaves them hungry, she says.

“The children say it’s too little,” Ms. Kamdem says. “Honestly, it’s affecting them. It’s hurting us a lot.”

The soaring cost of bread in Cameroon, pushed up by global wheat shortages after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, is just one of the war’s shock waves that continue to ripple around the world. Read full story.

– Geoffrey York and Paul Njie

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8:21 a.m. ET

Donetsk governor says Russia fired cluster munitions at Kramatorsk rail station

The governor of Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region on Thursday accused Russian forces of firing cluster munitions at a rail station in the city of Kramatorsk in an attack that killed at least 39 people.

Governor Pavlo Kyrylenko published a photograph online showing several bodies on the ground beside piles of suitcases and other luggage, but did not share what evidence he had of the type of weapon used for the attack. Reuters was not immediately able to verify his allegation.

“If at the beginning they exclusively … targeted railway tracks, then now it’s not only tracks, but also firing a missile containing cluster munitions which are meant for people. This is absolute confirmation that this (strike) was intended against civilians,” Kyrylenko said in an online briefing.

Russia denies targeting civilians. The Russian 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 did not have any targets assigned in Kramatorsk on Friday. Read more.

– Reuters

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7:44 a.m. ET

Ukrainian villagers count dead after weeks confined in Yahidne school basement

People stand outside the entrance to the basement of a school, as Russia's invasion of Ukraine continues, in the village of Yahidne, near to Chernihiv, Ukraine, April 6, 2022.MARKO DJURICA/Reuters

The names of the dead are scrawled on the peeling wall of a school basement where residents say more than 300 people were trapped for weeks by Russian occupiers in Yahidne, a village north of the Ukrainian capital Kyiv.

Halyna Tolochina, a member of the village council, struggled to compose herself as she went through the list, scribbled in black on the plaster either side of a green door, in the gloomy warren where she said she and hundreds of others were confined.

To the left of the door were scrawled the seven names of people killed by Russian soldiers. To the right were the 10 names of people who died because of the harsh conditions in the basement, she said. Read full story.

– Reuters

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7:11 a.m. ET

Boats, helicopters, art: Europe freezes $32 billion of oligarchs’ assets

Eclipse, a superyacht linked to sanctioned Russian oligarch Roman Abramovich, is docked in the Turkish tourist resort of Marmaris, Turkey March 22, 2022.YORUK ISIK/Reuters

EU governments have frozen about 30 billion euros ($32.6 billion) of assets linked to oligarchs and other sanctioned people with ties to the Kremlin, the European Commission said on Friday.

The assets, totalling 29.5 billion euros since the start of the war in Ukraine, include bank accounts, boats, helicopters, real estate and artwork, according to the Commission, the EU’s executive body.

Additionally, about 196 billion euros of transactions have been blocked, it added.

However, the Commission had no estimate for the total value of oligarchs’ assets in the European Union.

The volume of frozen resources may also represent only a minor share of assets believed to be owned by people sanctioned by the bloc following the Russian invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24. the Netherlands alone has estimated that about 27 billion euros in assets in the country and jurisdictions linked to it belonged to blacklisted oligarchs.

Wealthy individuals can use frontmen or anonymous shell companies and trusts to conceal their assets, which makes it very difficult to identify them, EU officials and diplomats have said, especially in jurisdictions with lax rules on companies’ beneficial owners.

– Reuters

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6:56 a.m. ET

Death toll from Kramatorsk rail strike rises to 39 with 87 wounded, says governor

A Ukrainian police walks by calcinated cars outside a train station in Kramatorsk, eastern Ukraine, that was being used for civilian evacuations, after it was hit by a rocket attack.FADEL SENNA/AFP/Getty Images

At least 39 people were killed and 87 wounded in a Russian rocket strike on a railway station packed with evacuees in east Ukraine on Friday, regional Governor Pavlo Kyrylenko said, updating an earlier estimate of 30 killed.

In an online post, he said many of the wounded were in a serious condition. Separately, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said no Ukrainian troops were present at the train station at the time of the attack. “Russian forces hit the train station in Kramatorsk, (firing) on an ordinary train station, on ordinary people, there were no soldiers there.” Read more.

– Reuters

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6:16 a.m. ET

Russia denies missile strike on Kramatorsk railway station

The remains of a rocket with the Russian lettering "for our children" painted on it is seen on the ground in the aftermath of a rocket attack on the railway station in the eastern city of Kramatorsk, in the Donbass region on April 8, 2022.ANATOLII STEPANOV/AFP/Getty Images

Russia’s defence ministry denied that Russian forces were responsible for a missile strike on a railway station in Kramatorsk in eastern Ukraine on Friday, the RIA news agency reported.

Ukraine’s state railway company had said more than 30 people had been killed and over 100 wounded in the strike, which occurred as civilians were trying to evacuate to safer parts of the country.

The defence ministry said the missile was of a type used only by the Ukrainian military, and similar to one that hit the centre of the city of Donetsk on March 14, killing 17 people, RIA reported. Read more

– Reuters

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5:49 a.m. ET

Britain says 41,000 Ukrainian visas issued amid criticism

People queue for the train to Kiyv at the railway station in Przemysl, southeastern Poland on late April 7, 2022.WOJTEK RADWANSKI/AFP/Getty Images

The British government said on Friday it had issued 41,000 visas to Ukrainians under schemes to help refugees come to Britain, amid criticism the application process was taking too long and was too complicated.

Last month, Britain set up two schemes to help Ukrainians, one for those with family already in the United Kingdom, and another allowing refugees enter to stay with Britons who had offered accommodation.

According to the latest figures, just under 80,000 applications have so been submitted. For the 36,300 made under the family scheme, 28,500 visas had been issued.

But for the “Homes for Ukraine” scheme, just 12,500 visas had been issued from the 43,600 applications. As of Tuesday, just 1,200 refugees had arrived in Britain under this scheme, according to the data.

Those involved, both Ukrainians and the Britons opening up their homes to refugees, have criticized it for being overly bureaucratic and complicated, meaning some refugees have been left in limbo for weeks waiting to travel to Britain despite having accommodation ready for them.

– Reuters

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5:45 a.m. ET

U.K. sanctions Russian President Vladimir Putin’s daughters

Britain added Vladimir Putin’s daughters to its sanctions list on Friday, 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.

Following the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Britain and other Western allies have announced several waves of sanctions targeting Moscow’s wealthy elites, key industries and its access to the international financial system.

An update to Britain’s sanctions list announced asset freezes on Putin’s adult daughters Katerina Tikhonova and Maria Vorontsova, and Sergeyevna Vinokurova, the daughter of foreign minister Sergei Lavrov. All three were sanctioned by the United States earlier this week.

“Our unprecedented package of sanctions is hitting the elite and their families, while degrading the Russian economy on a scale Russia hasn’t seen since the fall of the Soviet Union,” Foreign Secretary Liz Truss said in a statement.

Britain also said its analysis showed Russia is heading for the deepest recession since the collapse of the Soviet Union. Britain estimates that 60 per cent of Russian foreign currency reserves have been frozen as a result of international sanctions.

– Reuters

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5:38 a.m. ET

Russian rocket strike on east Ukrainian rail station kills scores of evacuees

A man carries an injured dog after a rocket attack on the railway station in the eastern city of Kramatorsk, in the Donbass region on April 8, 2022.HERVE BAR/AFP/Getty Images

More than 30 people were killed and over 100 were wounded in a Russian rocket strike on a railway station in east Ukraine on Friday as civilians tried to evacuate to safer parts of the country, the state railway company said.

It said two Russian rockets had struck a station in the city of Kramatorsk which is used for the evacuation of civilians from areas under bombardment by Russian forces.

“Two rockets hit Kramatorsk railway station,” Ukrainian Railways said in a statement.

It later added: “According to operational data, more than 30 people were killed and more than 100 were wounded in the rocket attack on Kramatorsk railway station.”

Reuters could not verify the information. Russia did not immediately comment on the reports of the attack and the casualty toll. Moscow has denied targeting civilians since invading Ukraine on Feb. 24. Read full story.

– Reuters

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Russia-Ukraine live updates: Five children among 50 dead in Russian attack on busy train station - The Globe and Mail
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