Pavlo Kyrylenko, head of the Donetsk Regional Military Administration said: "The Russian fascists have hit the railway station in Kramatorsk with Iskander cluster munitions. Police and rescuers working at the scene are reporting dozens of dead and injured", Ukrayinska Pravda reported.

 

Thousands of people were at the train station at the time of the missile strike, Kyrylenko said, as Donbas residents were being evacuated to safer areas of Ukraine.

 

He stressed that the Russian forces "knew very well where they were aiming and what they wanted: they wanted to sow panic and fear, they wanted to take as many civilians as possible hostage".

 

Earlier, Kyrylenko reported that evacuations by bus from Vuhledar on Thursday were carried out under Russian fire and that a cruise missile strike near Sloviansk temporarily blocked the departure of three evacuation trains.

 

Movement was restored around midnight, the report said.