By David L. Stern
,
Julian Duplain
Today at 12:20 a.m. EDT|Updated today at 8:13 a.m. EDT
By David L. Stern
,
Julian Duplain
Today at 12:20 a.m. EDT|Updated today at 8:13 a.m. EDT
MUKACHEVO, Ukraine — Ukrainian officials vowed Saturday to continue running evacuation trains from the country’s embattled east, a day after a suspected Russian airstrike on a train station in the eastern city of Kramatorsk killed at least 52 people and added to allegations of Russian war crimes. “We urge residents of eastern Ukraine to use these trains, because in the coming days there may be intensification of hostilities,” Ukraine’s state railway company said.
Moscow has dispatched thousands more troops to eastern Ukraine, according to Washington. Friday’s attack was a grim reminder of the dangers faced by fleeing civilians as the exodus from Ukraine’s south and east picks up pace. More than 6,600 people fled embattled areas in those regions via humanitarian corridors Friday, according to Kyiv, the highest count this week.
President Volodymyr Zelensky has called for a “firm global response” to the Kramatorsk station airstrike, describing it as “another war crime” by Russia in a Friday night video address. “All the efforts of the world will be aimed to establish every minute: who did what, who gave orders,” he added.
Here’s what to know
- European leaders have been visiting Kyiv to show their support, with Austrian Chancellor Karl Nehammer meeting Zelensky Saturday, and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen promising during her Friday visit to expedite Ukraine’s application to join the European Union.
- The Russian Ministry of Justice says it revoked the registration of Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and a dozen other international organizations and foreign nonprofits for an unspecified “breach” of law.
- The Russian military has lost about 15 to 20 percent of the force it mobilized for the invasion, and some units are “almost completely devastated,” the Pentagon said Friday. Combat ahead will be a “knife fight … very bloody and very ugly,” a senior U.S. defense official said.
- The Washington Post has lifted its paywall for readers in Russia and Ukraine. Telegram users can subscribe to our channel for updates.
UNDERSTANDING THE RUSSIA-UKRAINE CONFLICT
176 children killed so far in war, Ukraine’s prosecutor general says
About 176 children have died and more than 324 have been injured since the war began in Ukraine, the country’s prosecutor general said Saturday.
The prosecutor general’s office also confirmed that five children were among the dead and that 16 were injured in Friday’s missile strike on the Kramatorsk rail station, as families tried to flee eastern Ukraine amid intensifying Russian attacks in the region. At least 52 civilians were killed and 109 injured in the Kramatorsk strike, the regional governor said.
Children were also injured in Donetsk, Kyiv, Kharkiv and Mykolaiv, which have all seen heavy fighting. Some 928 educational institutions have also been damaged and 84 have been destroyed, the prosecutor general’s office said.
The Washington Post is unable to independently verify the figures. The prosecutor general’s office underscored that the figures are not final, as teams try to access areas where hostilities are still taking place.
According to the United Nations’ office for human rights, at least 1,626 civilians have been killed since the war began in late February, including 132 children. It says its figures are incomplete and that the actual tolls are likely to be considerably higher.
Most of the recorded civilian casualties were caused by explosive weapons with a wide impact area, including shelling from heavy artillery, missiles and airstrikes, the U.N. agency added.
Ukrainian railway company vows to keep up evacuations from east
By David L. Stern7:25 a.m.
MUKACHEVO, Ukraine — Ukraine’s state railway company said Saturday that it is continuing to evacuate “as many people as possible from eastern Ukraine” before Russia launches an anticipated full-scale attack on the region.
In statements posted on its Telegram channel, Ukrainian Railways, known as Ukrzaliznytsia, said its trains were departing from the eastern Donbas region despite a “horrific missile attack on the Kramatorsk railway station” on Friday, which killed at least 52 people and injured 109.
“The railway does not abandon the task of taking everyone to safety,” the statement said.
Although the Kramatorsk station was not operating after the assault, the railway company said two stations were working in the Donetsk region and one station in the Luhansk region.
“We urge residents of eastern Ukraine to use these trains, because in the coming days there may be intensification of hostilities,” Ukrzaliznytsia said. “The smaller the civilian population in the region, the easier it will be for the military to defend our territory and defeat Russia.”
The company also said that since Russia’s invasion at the end of February, its trains have evacuated about 3½ million people, with more than 470,000 leaving the country. The destinations with the highest traffic were in Poland, the company said.
The statement added that Ukrzaliznytsia would transport people back to their homes when the war ends.
IMF sets up account to support Ukraine
By Julian Duplain7:01 a.m.
The International Monetary Fund will set up a new account to enable donors to deliver funds directly to the Ukrainian government.
The account is “aimed at assisting Ukraine to meet its balance of payments and budgetary needs and help stabilize its economy,” the IMF said Friday evening. It previously said the Ukrainian economy could shrink by 10 percent this year, with a much larger contraction possible in the event of a prolonged war.
Several IMF members, including Canada, had requested such a facility, which will use existing infrastructure to deliver rapid payments to Ukraine. Ottawa recently proposed up to $795 million in aid to Kyiv. Payments can be made in reserve currencies or special drawing rights.
The IMF in March approved an emergency payment of $1.4 billion as Ukrainian authorities struggle with “economic dislocations” caused by the conflict.
Ukraine has prevented Russia from linking Donbas and Crimea, U.K. says
Ukraine’s stubborn resistance has prevented Russia from establishing a land corridor linking Crimea to the eastern Donbas region, the British Defense Ministry said in a Saturday intelligence update.
Control of the port city of Mariupol, which has weathered prolonged Russian bombardment, is key to such a corridor. The city’s mayor has denied Russia’s claim that it successfully captured central Mariupol.
Britain said the Kremlin continues to focus on eastern and southern Ukraine and that Russian air activity is expected to increase in the area. A senior U.S. defense official said Friday that the “overwhelming weight and focus” of Russian airstrikes in the past 24 hours had been focused on Mariupol and Donbas.
Luhansk rail evacuations cautiously continue after station attack
The governor of the Luhansk region in eastern Ukraine announced that 11 evacuation rail routes would operate on Saturday and called for more civilian evacuations, in response to increased Russian shelling.
“We remain with the most difficult situation. The entire territory of the Luhansk oblast is being shelled, and all population centers are being shelled,” Serhiy Haidai, the Luhansk regional governor, said in an interview on public television. He added that the neighborhoods of Rubizhne, Popasna and Hirske faced the most intense shelling.
Haidai wrote on Telegram that 11 evacuation trains will depart from the Luhansk and Donetsk regions on Saturday.
The trains will run despite fears of attacks following a missile strike Friday on the Kramatorsk railway station that killed 52 people, according to the Donetsk regional governor. Haidai said the recent attacks on civilian infrastructure mean that greater safety measures would be put in place, including measures to prevent congestion around stations and limits on passenger flows.
The Donbas region of eastern Ukraine is a flash point for the war between Russia and Ukraine, as Moscow repositions troops away from the north to focus on the south and east. On Friday, more than 6,600 residents fled from southern and eastern Ukraine, officials said, this week’s highest daily count.
‘Responsibility is inevitable,’ Zelensky says after rail station attack
By Julian Duplain5:40 a.m.
President Volodymyr Zelensky has told Ukrainians that “responsibility is inevitable” after Friday’s attack on a train station in Kramatorsk — which killed at least 52 civilians, including five children, according to Donetsk governor Pavlo Kyrylenko.
“This is another war crime of Russia, for which everyone involved will be held accountable,” Zelensky said in a video address to the nation late Friday.
“All the efforts of the world will be aimed to establish every minute: who did what, who gave orders … and how the strike was coordinated,” he added, noting that “Russian state propagandists” have tried to shift the blame to Ukrainian forces.
Zelensky called for a “firm global response” to the attack, criticizing “the softness with which some in the West still treat the Russian state.”
He expressed gratitude for the “personal involvement” of European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, who was in Kyiv on Friday with European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell. They visited Bucha northwest of the capital, where von der Leyen said that “our humanity was shattered” after hundreds of civilians were found killed earlier this week in the wake of the Russian army’s withdrawal.
“I appreciate the E.U.’s readiness to provide the necessary financial and technical assistance to document and investigate Russian crimes,” Zelensky said.
The Ukrainian president also thanked the European Commission for a questionnaire to assess the country’s readiness for E.U. membership negotiations.
“I am convinced of our success on this path,” said Zelensky. “Ukraine will be a member of the European Union.”
Ten humanitarian corridors open Saturday, Ukraine says
Ten humanitarian corridors will be open Saturday to civilians escaping fighting in southern and eastern Ukraine, Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk said Saturday on Telegram. Western officials have warned that Russia is escalating its attacks in those regions.
The evacuation routes will connect Mariupol, Berdyansk, Severodonetsk and other population centers to locations deeper inland, she said. People leaving Mariupol will need to use their own transportation.
On Friday, more than 6,600 residents fled from southern and eastern Ukraine, this week’s highest daily count.
Biden discusses Ukraine with South African leader, who blamed NATO for invasion
President Biden stressed the “need for a clear, unified international response to Russian aggression in Ukraine” during a phone call on Friday with South African President Cyril Ramaphosa.
Ramaphosa, who has blamed NATO’s eastward expansion after the Cold War for the Kremlin’s belligerence, said the two leaders agreed on “the need for a ceasefire and dialogue between Ukraine and Russia.” But he stopped short of condemning Moscow or Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Ramaphosa had previously denounced Russia’s attack on Ukraine as a violation of international law, but his country abstained on a vote condemning Moscow’s invasion at the United Nations General Assembly last month. The measure passed 141 to 5.
How isolated is Russia, really?
As a consequence of its invasion of Ukraine, Russia has become isolated. In a matter of weeks, it went from a highly integrated economy to one of the world’s most heavily sanctioned countries, and governments are going so far as to subvert long-standing policies and traditions to pour weapons and other equipment into Ukraine.
Members of the United Nations General Assembly twice voted to condemn the Russian invasion. Only a handful of countries, including pariah states such as North Korea and Eritrea, sided with Russia.
On Thursday, the General Assembly went further, voting to remove Russia from the U.N. Human Rights Council.
But the act of isolating Russia is not a true global trend. Though the United States, the European Union and other allies have imposed sanctions on Russian oligarchs and armed enemies of the Kremlin, most of the world’s population lives in countries that have not.
Macron calls Polish leader a ‘far-right antisemite’ after argument on Putin talks
French President Emmanuel Macron called Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki a “far-right antisemite” opposed to LGBTQ rights, amid an ongoing tussle among European leaders over how to engage Russian President Vladimir Putin.
The French leader, who is up for election this weekend, made the remarks in an interview published Thursday after Morawiecki earlier this month likened Macron’s talks with Putin to negotiating with Hitler, Stalin or Pol Pot.
Macron has held several discussions with his Russian counterpart in recent months, a task he told French newspaper Le Parisien was his “duty” even if it was “thankless.” He also accused Morawiecki of wanting to help Marine Le Pen, the far-right French presidential candidate, in the upcoming polls.
The Polish Foreign Ministry said Friday it had summoned the French ambassador in Warsaw following Macron’s remarks. Poland, like other Eastern European countries that were behind the Iron Curtain, has generally advocated a stronger response to the Russian invasion than its Western European counterparts.
Moscow forces closure of international rights groups’ Russian offices
The Russian Ministry of Justice announced Friday that it had revoked the registration of Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and a dozen other international organizations and foreign nonprofits.
The ministry said the organizations “were expelled after they were found to be in breach of the current legislation of the Russian Federation.” It did not specify what laws were allegedly broken.
Amnesty International Secretary General Agnès Callamard said its work exposing Russian war crimes would continue even with the Moscow office’s closure.
“Amnesty’s closing down in Russia is only the latest in a long list of organizations that have been punished for defending human rights and speaking the truth to the Russian authorities,” Callamard said. “In a country where scores of activists and dissidents have been imprisoned, killed or exiled, where independent media has been smeared, blocked or forced to self-censor, and where civil society organizations have been outlawed or liquidated, you must be doing something right if the Kremlin tries to shut you up.”
The Kremlin has previously tried to restrict the groups: Last month, Russia’s media regulator blocked access to Amnesty’s Russian-language website.
Katerina Ang contributed to this report.
Perspective: What I’ve seen in Bucha
This story contains graphic photos.
BUCHA, Ukraine — For weeks, I could see dark plumes of smoke rising above the city of Bucha from a destroyed bridge in Irpin. I focused my lenses on heart-wrenching scenes of people trying to keep their balance as they carefully crossed planks of wood placed over the river — the only gateway toward safety for the massive exodus of refugees fleeing with a handful of belongings.
Once I got within walking distance of Bucha, on March 10, I was warned of snipers. I photographed people passing the bodies of two Russian soldiers lying on a railroad track. Another corpse lay in the middle of the road, and I realized that any attempt to get closer would most likely be lethal: I had heard too many hideous stories of people trying to escape who were instead shot dead. Even cars with signs marked “children” in Ukrainian and Russian were attacked.
Russia expels 45 Polish diplomats in retaliatory measure
Moscow said Friday it would expel 45 Polish diplomats in response to Warsaw’s decision last month to banish a similar number of Russian officials.
Officials at the Polish Embassy in Moscow and at consulates in Irkutsk, Kaliningrad and St. Petersburg must leave Russia by midnight April 13, the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement posted on Telegram.
Poland and more than a dozen other countries have expelled Russian diplomats following the Kremlin’s Feb. 24 invasion of Ukraine. On March 23, Polish Interior Minister Mariusz Kaminski said Poland was expelling “spies pretending to be diplomats.”
In Bucha, a massive search for bodies left by Russian occupiers
BUCHA, Ukraine — There were bodies in every neighborhood.
This week, investigators in this Ukrainian town searched homes and mass graves to learn how many.
Russian soldiers occupied Bucha for a month, and their campaign of atrocities killed hundreds. Since the town’s recapture by Ukrainian forces last week, investigators have been drafted from across the country to comb neighborhoods for the remaining dead.
In a basement, they found five men, each with his hands tied together before someone shot them in the head. In a clearing not far away there was another body, left with the detritus of what had been a Russian military camp.
War in Ukraine: What you need to know
The latest: A missile attack killed at least 50 people at a train station in Kramatorsk, in eastern Ukraine, as an exodus from the country’s south and east picked up pace. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky called the strike in Kramatorsk “another war crime of Russia” and vowed to hold the perpetrators responsible.
More than 6,600 people fled from embattled areas in the south and east via humanitarian corridors Friday, according to Kyiv, the highest count this week. The evacuations came as Russia dispatches thousands more troops to eastern Ukraine, according to Washington, suggesting fighting there would intensify.
The fight: Russian forces continue to mount sporadic attacks on civilian targets in a number of Ukrainian cities. Ukrainian prosecutors have been taking detailed testimony from victims to investigate Russian war crimes.
The weapons: Ukraine is making use of weapons such as Javelin antitank missiles and Switchblade “kamikaze” drones, provided by the United States and other allies. Russia has used an array of weapons against Ukraine, some of which have drawn the attention and concern of analysts.
In Russia: Putin has locked down the flow of information within Russia, where the war isn’t even being called a war. The last independent newsletter in Russia suspended its operations.
Photos: Post photographers have been on the ground from the very beginning of the war — here’s some of their most powerful work.
How you can help: Here are ways those in the U.S. can help support the Ukrainian people as well as what people around the world have been donating.
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