Ukraine wants more weapons and sanctions after rocket attack in Kramatorsk

The Ukrainian government is calling on its foreign allies to provide more weapons and impose tougher sanctions against Russia over the bloody missile attack on a train station in Kramatorsk. That attack in the eastern region of Donetsk killed at least 52 people on Friday, according to Governor Pavlo Kirilenko, including women and children who tried to leave the city.

Ukraine says the Russian army is behind the missile attack, but Moscow firmly denies being responsible. President Volodimir Zelensky said on Friday evening that Russia deliberately fired on a civilian target with the rocket attack. The United States, the United Kingdom and the European Union, among others, have strongly condemned the attack.

According to the mayor of Kramatorsk, some 4,000 people were at the train station at the time of the impact, from where many residents are trying to flee the violence in the region. The city is one of the most important evacuation points in eastern Ukraine.

“We expect a strong global response to this war crime,” Zelenski said in a video message published Friday night about the attack on the station. “Any delay in delivering arms to Ukraine, any refusal, can only mean that the politicians in question want to help the Russian leadership more than us.”

Zelensky calls, among other things, for an embargo on Russian energy resources and wants all banks in the country to be cut off from international payment systems.