European Leaders Trickle to Ukraine, Pledge Military Aid

Date: 09 April 2022 - 21:41

News ID: ۱۰۱۴۳۶

KYIV (Dispatches) -- Evacuations resumed on Saturday from the town in eastern Ukraine where a missile strike killed 52 people at a railway station as civilians fled a feared Russian offensive.
Six weeks into Russia’s invasion, Moscow has shifted its focus to eastern and southern Ukraine after stiff resistance ended plans to swiftly capture Kyiv.
Civilians trapped in the region have faced brutal conditions.
With thousands killed in fighting and more than 11 million fleeing their homes or the country, President Volodymyr Zelensky met with European leaders, saying later he remained open to talks with Russia to resolve the conflict.
Moscow denied responsibility for the rocket attack on Friday morning, which killed 52 and injured a further 109 people, according to the latest official count.
Minibuses assembled at a church in Kramatorsk to collect shaken evacuees on Saturday. Almost 80 people, most of them elderly, took shelter overnight in the building, not far from the targeted station.
The station in Kramatorsk was being used as the main evacuation hub for refugees from the parts of the eastern Donbas region still under Ukrainian control.
The governor of Donetsk claimed a missile with cluster munitions was used in the attack, according to remarks published by the Interfax news agency.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell were in Kyiv for talks with Zelensky.
Russia faces “decay” because of ever tougher sanctions and Ukraine had a “European future”, von der Leyen said at a news conference with Zelensky.
Joining the Western solidarity campaign, Austrian Chancellor Karl Nehammer arrived in Kyiv and was expected to travel to Bucha later Saturday.
Russian troops appear to be seeking to create a long-sought land link between Crimea and the Moscow-backed separatist territories of Donetsk and Lugansk in the Donbas region.

Civilians have been urged to flee the heavy shelling there that has laid waste to towns and complicated evacuation efforts.

The defense ministry in Moscow said Saturday that Russian forces had destroyed an ammunition depot in the Dnipro region, and struck 85 Ukrainian military targets in the previous 24 hours.

“There is no secret -- the battle for Donbas will be decisive. What we have already experienced -- all this horror -- it can multiply,” warned Lugansk regional governor Sergiy Gaiday.

Fresh allegations also emerged from Obukhovychi, northwest of Kyiv, where villagers told AFP they were used as human shields. Moscow has denied targeting civilians.

Britain said Friday it was sending Ukraine more “high-grade military equipment” including Starstreak anti-aircraft missiles and 800 anti-tank missiles, while Slovakia said it had given Ukraine an S-300 air defense system.

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson was visiting Kyiv for face-to-face talks with Zelensky as part of a “show of solidarity with the Ukrainian people,” Downing Street said.

“They will discuss the UK’s long-term support to Ukraine and the PM will set out a new package of financial and military aid,” a spokesperson said.