At least 30 people
were killed and hundreds injured after an explosion at a train station in the
Ukrainian city of Kramatorsk. The train station was being used to evacuate civilians
from the war-torn region. A Russian rocket is said to have caused the
explosion, according to Ukraine’s state railway company.

Where is
Kramatorsk?

Kramatorsk in one
of the easternmost cities in Ukraine which still had a running train station.
Thousands of people were at the station at the time of the explosion. Ukraine’s
rail chief said the station was attacked by two rockets.

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Kramatorsk was one
of those stations that were being used to evacuate civilians on the face of
Russian advance. Local government officials had posted details of train
departures.

The regional
governor of Donetsk, one of the regions whose separatist aspirations were
granted legitimacy by Moscow, said police and rescuers have reported deaths and
injuries after rockets in the station.

Why Kramatorsk?

Russian forces
have had to retreat from Kyiv and several other regions unable to fight the
resistance from local Ukrainians. At this time, the international community was
expecting Russia to step up its attack in eastern Ukraine because while Moscow
has had to retreat from several areas, its position in the Donbas region
continues to remain dominant.

French President
Emmanuel Macron said that Russian forces are expected to escalate their attack
in the eastern Donbas region over the next few weeks.

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“They are going to
concentrate their efforts in the Donbas, and we’re going to experience very
difficult scenes in the coming days and weeks,” Macron said.

What’s going
on in Ukraine today?

The train station
attack comes on a day when European Union Commission President Ursula von der Leyen
and the European foreign policy chief as well as Slovak Prime Minister Eduard
Heger are in Kyiv to discuss humanitarian aid and trade with Ukraine President
Volodymyr Zelensky.