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Covered dead lie on the forecourt of the Kramatorsk train station
Photo: HERVE BAR / AFP
The war intensified in eastern Ukraine, to the dismay of the civilian population.
Dozens of people have been killed and injured in a rocket attack on the Kramatorsk train station.
Ukrainian authorities and pro-Russian forces have accused each other of the crime.
There are 30 dead and 100 injured, said railway boss Olexander Kamischyn in the morning.
The spokeswoman for the Ukrainian administrative region of Donetsk, Tetiana Ihnatenko, spoke on television of 27 dead, including two children, and at least 30 injured.
According to Governor Pavlo Kyrylenko, thousands of people in Kramatorsk were waiting to be evacuated.
Pictures show the dead covered with towels on the forecourt of the station, several parked cars have burned out.
Kramatorsk is located in the part of the contested Donetsk Oblast controlled by Ukraine.
Pro-Russian separatists lay claim to the entire administrative area.
The people who had suitcases and bags with them wanted to leave the city for fear of being attacked.
Mutual Blame
According to railway chief Kamishyn, two rockets hit.
The Ukrainian side blamed Russian troops.
Kyrylenko accused Russia of intentionally targeting civilians.
"They wanted to take as many peaceful people hostage as possible, they wanted to destroy everything Ukrainian," he wrote on Telegram.
On the other hand, the pro-Russian separatists in the self-proclaimed People's Republic of Donetsk spoke of a Ukrainian rocket attack.
Parts of a Totschka-U rocket fell to the ground.
The separatists also announced that an evacuation had just taken place in Kramatorsk, people should be taken to safety.
The Ukrainian leadership had previously called on the people in eastern Ukraine to get to safety and leave the area to the west if possible.
Russia had announced that it would focus its attacks on the region.
mrc/dpa
