On 8 April 2022, a Russian
missile strike hit
the railway station
''The Railway Station'' is an 1862 genre painting by the British artist William Powell Frith.Trotter p.63 The painting is held at Royal Holloway College, with a smaller version in the Royal Collection.
Description
It depicts a scene at the busy ...
of the
Ukrainian city of
Kramatorsk
Kramatorsk (, ; ) is a city and the administrative centre of Kramatorsk Raion in Donetsk Oblast of the Donbas region of eastern Ukraine. Prior to 2020, Kramatorsk was a city of oblast significance. Since October 2014, Kramatorsk has been the ...
during the
Russian invasion of Ukraine
On 24 February 2022, , starting the largest and deadliest war in Europe since World War II, in a major escalation of the Russo-Ukrainian War, conflict between the two countries which began in 2014. The fighting has caused hundreds of thou ...
. The strike killed 63 civilians (including 9 children) and wounded 150 (including 34 children).
Background
During the Russian invasion, which began on 24 February, Russian forces entered Ukraine with the goal of assisting the
separatist
Separatism is the advocacy of cultural, ethnic, tribal, religious, racial, regional, governmental, or gender separation from the larger group. As with secession, separatism conventionally refers to full political separation. Groups simply seekin ...
People's Republics of
Donetsk
Donetsk ( , ; ; ), formerly known as Aleksandrovka, Yuzivka (or Hughesovka), Stalin, and Stalino, is an industrial city in eastern Ukraine located on the Kalmius River in Donetsk Oblast, which is currently occupied by Russia as the capita ...
and
Luhansk
Luhansk (, ; , ), also known as Lugansk (, ; , ), is a city in the Donbas in eastern Ukraine. As of 2022, the population was estimated to be making Luhansk the Cities in Ukraine, 12th-largest city in Ukraine.
Luhansk served as the administra ...
in seizing the portions of
Donetsk
Donetsk ( , ; ; ), formerly known as Aleksandrovka, Yuzivka (or Hughesovka), Stalin, and Stalino, is an industrial city in eastern Ukraine located on the Kalmius River in Donetsk Oblast, which is currently occupied by Russia as the capita ...
and
Luhansk
Luhansk (, ; , ), also known as Lugansk (, ; , ), is a city in the Donbas in eastern Ukraine. As of 2022, the population was estimated to be making Luhansk the Cities in Ukraine, 12th-largest city in Ukraine.
Luhansk served as the administra ...
oblasts that were still controlled by the Ukrainian government. The soldiers of the
Armed Forces of Ukraine
The Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU) are the Military, military forces of Ukraine. All military and security forces, including the Armed Forces, are under the command of the president of Ukraine and subject to oversight by a permanent Verkhovna Rad ...
stationed in
Sloviansk
Sloviansk is a city in Donetsk Oblast, northern part of the Donbas region of eastern Ukraine. The city was known as ''Tor'' until 1784. While it did not actually belong to the raion itself, Sloviansk served as the administrative center of the S ...
and Kramatorsk played a key role in resisting the Russian offensive.
On the night of 7 April, pro-Russian
Telegram
Telegraphy is the long-distance transmission of messages where the sender uses symbolic codes, known to the recipient, rather than a physical exchange of an object bearing the message. Thus flag semaphore is a method of telegraphy, whereas pi ...
channel ZАПИСКИ VЕТЕРАНА ("Veteran's Notes") warned civilians not to evacuate from
Sloviansk
Sloviansk is a city in Donetsk Oblast, northern part of the Donbas region of eastern Ukraine. The city was known as ''Tor'' until 1784. While it did not actually belong to the raion itself, Sloviansk served as the administrative center of the S ...
and Kramatorsk on railways.
At around 10:10 the next morning, shortly before the bombing of the railway station in Kramatorsk, the Russian Ministry of Defence announced that they had hit railway stations in Sloviansk,
Pokrovsk, and
Barvinkove with "high-precision air-based missiles".
Attack
According to the Ukrainian government, between 1000 and 4000 civilians, mainly women and children, were present at the station awaiting evacuation from the region, which was being subjected to heavy Russian shelling.
At 10:24 and 10:25, media affiliated with the People's Republic of Donetsk published videos showing a pair of missiles being launched from
Shakhtarsk, a city under
separatist
Separatism is the advocacy of cultural, ethnic, tribal, religious, racial, regional, governmental, or gender separation from the larger group. As with secession, separatism conventionally refers to full political separation. Groups simply seekin ...
control.
At approximately 10:30, two missiles hit near the railway station building in Kramatorsk,
and the first reports were published in Ukrainian media at around 10:45.
A
World Central Kitchen
World Central Kitchen (WCK) is a not-for-profit, non-governmental organization that Food security, provides food relief. It was founded in 2010 by Spanish American chef and restaurateur José Andrés following the 2010 Haiti earthquake, earthq ...
aid worker
Humanitarian aid is material and logistic assistance, usually in the short-term, to people in need. Among the people in need are the homeless, refugees, and victims of natural disasters, wars, and famines. The primary objective of humanitarian a ...
who witnessed the attack in Kramatorsk said that he had heard "between five and ten explosions".
Reports described the scene as extremely bloody, with several people losing limbs from the explosions. Victims' bodies were strewn around amid abandoned luggage.
The missiles were initially misidentified as
Iskander ballistic missile
A ballistic missile is a type of missile that uses projectile motion to deliver warheads on a target. These weapons are powered only during relatively brief periods—most of the flight is unpowered. Short-range ballistic missiles (SRBM) typic ...
s.
Pavlo Kyrylenko, governor of Donetsk oblast, later specified that they had rather been
Tochka-U missiles armed with
cluster munitions
A cluster munition is a form of air-dropped or ground-launched explosive weapon that releases or ejects smaller submunitions. Commonly, this is a cluster bomb that ejects explosive bomblets that are designed to kill personnel and destroy vehi ...
.
The remnants of one of the missiles had the Russian words (), meaning "
n revengefor the children", painted in white on its outside. It also bore serial number Ш91579, which investigators said could potentially help trace it back to its original arsenal.
Responses
Michelle Bachelet
Verónica Michelle Bachelet Jeria (; born 29 September 1951) is a Chilean politician who served as President of Chile from 2006 to 2010 and again from 2014 to 2018, becoming the first woman to hold the presidency. She was re-elected in December ...
,
United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights
The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) is a department of the United Nations Secretariat that works to promote and protect human rights that are guaranteed under international law and stipulated in the Univers ...
, said that the attack "is emblematic of the failure to adhere to the principle of distinction, the prohibition of indiscriminate attacks and the principle of precaution enshrined in international humanitarian law".
Dunja Mijatović
Dunja Mijatović ( sr-cyr, Дуња Мијатовић; is a Bosnian human rights expert and activist.
An expert on media law and media regulation, she served from 2010 to 2017 as the OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media (RFoM), and as ...
,
Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights, said that the "strike on a densely populated urban area of Ukraine is yet another demonstration of the blatant disregard for civilian life, which has by now sadly become a steady feature of this military aggression".
Ukrainian President
Volodymyr Zelenskyy
Volodymyr Oleksandrovych Zelenskyy (born 25 January 1978) is a Ukrainian politician and former entertainer who has served as the sixth and current president of Ukraine since 2019. He took office five years after the start of the Russo-Ukraini ...
described Russia as "an evil with no limits".
European Commission
The European Commission (EC) is the primary Executive (government), executive arm of the European Union (EU). It operates as a cabinet government, with a number of European Commissioner, members of the Commission (directorial system, informall ...
President
President most commonly refers to:
*President (corporate title)
* President (education), a leader of a college or university
*President (government title)
President may also refer to:
Arts and entertainment Film and television
*'' Præsident ...
Ursula von der Leyen
Ursula Gertrud von der Leyen (; ; born 8 October 1958) is a German politician, serving as president of the European Commission since 2019. She served in the Cabinet of Germany, German federal government between 2005 and 2019, holding position ...
, who visited Ukraine on the day of the attack, condemned the attack as "despicable". French Foreign Minister
Jean-Yves Le Drian
Jean-Yves Le Drian (; born 30 June 1947) is a French politician who served as Minister of Europe and Foreign Affairs in the governments of Prime Ministers Édouard Philippe and Jean Castex (2017–2022) and as Minister of Defence under Preside ...
described the attack as a "
crime against humanity
Crimes against humanity are certain serious crimes committed as part of a large-scale attack against civilians. Unlike war crimes, crimes against humanity can be committed during both peace and war and against a state's own nationals as well as ...
", saying that it could not remain unpunished, while
British Defence Secretary Ben Wallace condemned it as a
war crime
A war crime is a violation of the laws of war that gives rise to individual criminal responsibility for actions by combatants in action, such as intentionally killing civilians or intentionally killing prisoners of war, torture, taking hostage ...
.
United Nations Secretary-General
António Guterres
António Manuel de Oliveira Guterres (born 30 April 1949) is a Portuguese politician and diplomat who is serving as the ninth and current secretary-general of the United Nations since 2017. A member of the Socialist Party (Portugal), ...
described the missile strike as "completely unacceptable".
Oleksandr Kamyshin
Oleksandr Mykolaiovych Kamyshin (; born 2 July 1984) is a former Ukrainian politician who was the Ministry of Strategic Industries of Ukraine, Minister of Strategic Industries from 21 March 2023 to 4 September 2024. He was the CEO of state-owne ...
, chairman of
Ukrainian Railways
The Public JSC Ukrainian Railways or PAT 'Ukrzaliznytsia (UZ)' () is a state-owned joint-stock company administering railway infrastructure and rail transport in Ukraine; a monopoly that controls the vast majority of the railroad transporta ...
, described the event as being a "targeted blow to the passenger infrastructure of the railway and the residents of the city of Kramatorsk". The
Security Service of Ukraine
The Security Service of Ukraine ( ; abbreviated as SBU [] or SSU) is the main Internal security, internal security agency of the Government of Ukraine, Ukrainian government. Its main duties include counter-intelligence activity and combati ...
opened criminal proceedings under Article 438 of the Criminal Code.
Royal United Services Institute
The Royal United Services Institute (RUSI, Rusi) is a defence and security think tank with its headquarters in London, United Kingdom. It was founded in 1831 by the Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington, Duke of Wellington, Arthur Wellesley ...
analyst Justin Bronk said that Russia aimed to damage Ukrainian transport infrastructure to make it difficult for Ukrainian forces to move around Donbas. He also suggested that Russia opted for the Tochka-U missile type due to its use by the Ukrainian army, in order to "muddy the waters".
The Pentagon
The Pentagon is the headquarters building of the United States Department of Defense, in Arlington County, Virginia, across the Potomac River from Washington, D.C. The building was constructed on an accelerated schedule during World War II. As ...
highlighted Russian responsibility for the attack, as well as the strategic importance of the railway junction.
Response by Russia and its supporters
Initially, Russian state media and pro-Russian telegram channels
claimed successful Russian airstrikes on a military transport target in Kramatorsk. After it became clear that the missiles had killed civilians, however, earlier reports were redacted, the Russian government denied responsibility for the attack, and the
Russian Ministry of Defence
The Ministry of Defence of the Russian Federation (; MOD) is the governing body of the Russian Armed Forces. The President of Russia is the Commander-in-Chief of the forces and directs the activity of the ministry. The Minister of Defence exerci ...
characterized it as a Ukrainian hoax.
The Russian Ministry of Defence claimed that the missiles were launched by Ukrainian forces from the city of
Dobropillia
Dobropillia (, ; ) is a city in Pokrovsk Raion, Donetsk Oblast, Ukraine. Prior to 2020, it was a city of oblast significance and served as the administrative center of the former Dobropillia Raion, though it did not belong to the raion. It is lo ...
, southwest of Kramatorsk.
Russian media also said that the serial number of the missile was in the same range as one used by Ukrainian forces. Serial numbers cannot be used to prove which side fired the missile, however, since all Tochka-U's were manufactured at a
single site in Russia and distributed from there across the Soviet Union. As a result, there was, for example, a close serial number match between a Tochka-U used by Russia in Syria and one used by Ukraine in
Snizhne
Snizhne (, ) or Snezhnoye (), formerly known as Vasylivka (; ) until 1864, is a city in Horlivka Raion, Donetsk Oblast, Ukraine. The eastern edge of Snizhne is adjacent to administrative border of Luhansk Oblast. Its population is
History
The ...
.
Moreover, both Russia and Ukraine have made extensive use of munitions captured from the other side.
A fake video clip with a mock BBC logo, attributing blame to the Ukrainian forces, circulated through pro-Russian telegram channels since 10 April. The video was also aired on Russian state television. The BBC has not produced any such video.
Assessment of the Russian response
The Russian Ministry of Defense claimed that their forces no longer use Tochka-U missiles. However,
Amnesty International
Amnesty International (also referred to as Amnesty or AI) is an international non-governmental organization focused on human rights, with its headquarters in the United Kingdom. The organization says that it has more than ten million members a ...
, the investigative journalists of the
Conflict Intelligence Team, and a number of military experts had already reported the use of Tochkas by Russian forces in multiple parts of Ukraine prior to the strike on Kramatorsk. Moreover, investigators from the open-source
Belarusian Hajun project had published videos of several Russian trucks with Tochka missiles heading from Belarus to Ukraine with 'V' markings on 5 and 30 March 2022. The
Institute for the Study of War
The Institute for the Study of War (ISW) is an American nonprofit research group and advocacy think tank founded in 2007 by military historian Kimberly Kagan and headquartered in Washington, D.C. ISW provides research and analysis of modern arm ...
assessed that the Russian
8th Combined Arms Army, which is active in the
Donbas
The Donbas (, ; ) or Donbass ( ) is a historical, cultural, and economic region in eastern Ukraine. The majority of the Donbas is occupied by Russia as a result of the Russo-Ukrainian War.
The word ''Donbas'' is a portmanteau formed fr ...
area, is equipped with Tochka-U missiles.
Russian news reports and social media footage showed the 47th Missile Brigade, part of Russia's 8th Combined Arms Army, displaying Tochka-U missiles at public events in 2021, including at the
Victory Day
Victory Day is a commonly used name for public holidays in various countries, where it commemorates a nation's triumph over a hostile force in a war or the liberation of a country from hostile occupation. In many cases, multiple countries may ob ...
parade in
Krasnodar
Krasnodar, formerly Yekaterinodar (until 1920), is the largest city and the administrative centre of Krasnodar Krai, Russia. The city stands on the Kuban River in southern Russia, with a population of 1,154,885 residents, and up to 1.263 millio ...
.
On 14 April,
Bellingcat
Bellingcat (stylised bell¿ngcat) is a Netherlands-based investigative journalism group that specialises in fact-checking and open-source intelligence (OSINT). It was founded by British citizen journalist and former blogger Eliot Higgins in Ju ...
stated that open source evidence remained insufficient to establish the direction from which the missile had been fired.
On 18 April,
PolitiFact
PolitiFact.com is an American nonprofit project operated by the Poynter Institute in St. Petersburg, Florida, with offices there and in Washington, D.C. It began in 2007 as a project of the ''Tampa Bay Times'' (then the ''St. Petersburg Times ...
assessed the possibility of the incident being a
false flag
A false flag operation is an act committed with the intent of disguising the actual source of responsibility and pinning blame on another party. The term "false flag" originated in the 16th century as an expression meaning an intentional misrep ...
, concluding that "there's no credible evidence that Ukraine was behind the April 8 attack at the Kramatorsk train station."
Documentary
In 2023 Ukrainian filmmaker made a documentary, ''Save The Grasshopper'', about the incident.
See also
References
{{Portal bar, Modern history, Ukraine
2022 building bombings
21st-century mass murder in Ukraine
April 2022 in Ukraine
Building bombings in Ukraine
Donetsk Oblast in the Russian invasion of Ukraine
Railway station attack
Mass murder in 2022
Attacks on railway stations in Europe
Eastern front of the Russian invasion of Ukraine
Russian war crimes in Ukraine
Use of cluster munition during the Russian invasion of Ukraine