More civilians flee E Ukraine after deadly station strike

Kyiv: Civilian evacuations moved forward in patches of battle-scarred eastern Ukraine a day after a missile strike killed at least 52 people and wounded more than 100 at a train station where thousands clamoured to leave before an expected Russian onslaught.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy demanded a tough global response to Friday's train station attack in Kramatorsk, calling it the latest example of war crimes by Russian forces that should motivate the West to do more to help his country defend itself.

All world efforts will be directed to establish every minute of who did what, who gave what orders, where the missile came from, who transported it, who gave the command and how this strike was agreed, Zelenskyy said in his nightly video address, his voice rising in anger. Russia denied it was responsible and accused Ukraine's military of firing on the station to try to turn blame for civilian casualties on Moscow. A Russian Defense Ministry spokesman detailed the missile's trajectory and Ukrainian troop positions to bolster the argument.

Western experts and Ukrainian authorities insisted that Russia launched the weapon. Remnants of the rocket had the words For the children in Russian painted on it. The phrasing seemed to suggest the missile was sent to avenge the loss or subjugation of children, although its exact meaning remained unclear..

With trains not running out of Kramatorsk on Saturday, panicked residents boarded buses or looked for other ways to get out, fearing the kind of unrelenting assaults and occupations by Russian invaders that delivered food shortages, demolished buildings and death to other cities elsewhere in Ukraine. "It was terrifying. The horror, the horror,"

one resident told British

broadcaster Sky, recalling the train station.