Dozens dead after railway station hit by rockets - Ukraine

The BBC's Joe Inwood has arrived at the scene of the station blast in Kramatorsk and has just sent these photos of a missile and burned out cars.

We'll bring you more from him as soon as we get it.

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EU and US leaders have been responding to the strike at Kramatorsk railway station this morning, where the latest estimate from Ukraine is at least 39 people have been killed and many more injured.

President of the European Council, Charles Michel, said it was "horrifying" to see the missile hit one of the main stations used by civilians evacuating the region.

EU foreign policy chief, Josep Borrell, strongly condemned this morning's attack and called it "yet another attempt to close escape routes for those fleeing this unjustified war".

And a White House spokeswoman decried the "horrific and devastating images" of the attack in an interview with CNN, cited by Reuters.

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Elsewhere in Ukraine, the governor of the Sumy region in the north-east of the country says the Ukrainian military has regained full control of the area.

Dmytro Zhyvytskyy wrote on social media that Russian forces had withdrawn from Sumy but he warned residents against returning before mines were cleared.

The city, which is close to the Russian border, was the scene of heavy bombardment and fighting early in the invasion.

Britain's Ministry of Defence said this morning that Russian forces have now fully withdrawn from northern Ukraine.

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The remnants of one of the missiles dropped near Kramatorsk station appears to have the words "for the children" written on it in Russian.

The phrase - "za detei" in Russian - suggests it was fired in support of children, or in retaliation to an attack on children, rather than aimed at children.

Ukrainian officials say the railway station strike in Kramatorsk has killed at least 39 people including four children. The station was being used to evacuate civilians from the Donbas region in eastern Ukraine, where fighting has intensified in recent days.

The European Union has agreed further sanctions targeting Russia.

The EU says this fifth package of "restrictive measures" is aimed at ramping up economic pressure on the Kremlin and aims to "cripple its ability to finance its invasion of Ukraine".

The latest sanctions package includes:

• An import ban on all forms of Russian coal
• A full transaction ban and asset freeze on four Russian banks
• A ban on Russian and Belarusian freight road operators working in the EU
• Excluding Russia from procurement contracts

Additional sanctions are being considered by the EU, including targeting oil imports and transaction methods. The EU has said reducing its dependency on Russian energy imports is a priority.

Thousands of people - most of them women and children and the elderly - were at the railway station in Kramatorsk when it was hit by rockets, the city's mayor Oleksander Honcharenko has said.

The station, which lies in eastern Ukraine, was being used to evacuate civilians from the Donbas region in the east.

These were the scenes at Kramatorsk train station earlier in the week as people waited for trains. Russia is believed to be stepping up its offensive in Donbas as it withdraws from the north.

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Russia has denied involvement in the strikes on the railway station in Kramatorsk.

The country's defence ministry said accusations that Russia had attacked the station were "a provocation" and "absolutely untrue".

Moscow has issued similar denials in recent days as evidence has emerged of attacks on civilians around the capital Kyiv.

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The war in Ukraine has rattled grain and vegetable oil markets, causing world food prices to jump to a new record high in March, the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) says.

Ukraine and Russia are major exporters of basic foodstuffs, and the war has hit crop production, driving up prices.

Some 30% of the world's wheat comes from Ukraine and Russia, and the conflict has affected exports.

Russia also produces enormous amounts of nutrients, like potash and phosphate - key ingredients in fertilisers, which enable plants and crops to grow.

Thirty-nine people were reportedly killed after two rockets hit Kramatorsk train station, according to the region's governor.

Writing on Telegram, Pavlo Kyrylenko said the death toll had risen to 39, and that 87 people had also been wounded during the shelling.

He added that many had suffered serious wounds.

There are differing figures emerging from Ukraine about the total number wounded in the attack, with President Zelensky saying around 300 were injured.

Kyrylenko said that despite the bombardment, evacuations from the region would continue.

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UK Home Secretary Priti Patel has apologised "with frustration" for visa delays that have prevented thousands of Ukrainian refugees entering the UK.

Just a quarter of the 40,900 people who have successfully applied have reached the UK.

Of those, only 1,200 people have arrived under the Homes for Ukraine scheme, which allows people to sponsor refugees.

The programme's been criticised for the amount of bureaucracy involved in making an application, forcing some to make alternative arrangements.

Patel told BBC News: "I'll be very candid, it has taken time. Any new scheme takes time, any new visa system takes time."

The Refugee Council charity has accused the government of "choosing control over compassion".

Read more on the home secretary's apology and refugee figures here.

Two children have reportedly died in the strike on Kramatorsk railway station, according to the chairman of Ukraine's state railway company.

Writing on Telegram, Oleksandr Kamyshin said that according to operational data, at least two children had died during the attack.

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Some images coming in from Kramatorsk rail station, independently verified by the BBC, show the devastation after this morning's attack.

Train company officials say at least 30 have been killed and 100 injured in the attack.

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Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky has condemned the attack on the Kramatorsk train station, where around 30 people are believed to have been killed.

Writing on Instagram, Zelensky said: "Lacking the strength and courage to stand up to us on the battlefield, they are cynically destroying the civilian population.

"This is an evil that has no limits. And if it is not punished, it will never stop."

Some more details now from Kramatorsk, where the state rail company says at least 30 people were killed this morning in a missile strike at the town's train station.

Nathan Mook, chief executive of the World Central Kitchen charity, was at the station just moments before the attack and spoke to the BBC about what he witnessed.

"We were driving by the station over an overpass, we could see well over a thousand people. It was crowded, just like it was yesterday and the day before," he said.

Mook says he then heard the sound of five to 10 explosions "two minutes after we had driven by".

"You feel it before you hear it. The explosion rattles you on the inside."

"One of our guys at the [food] warehouse said he had seen Ukrainian air defences intercept one of the rockets. These were missiles."

After driving back to the site of the attack, Mook describes a scene of devastation: "The remnants of one of the missiles in the parking lots, blown out windows, a couple [of] dozen casualties."

"Emergency crews were on the ground very quickly, tending to people that were injured and had been killed," he added.

Mook posted the video below yesterday, which gives some sense of the crowds at the station.

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This is Olaf Scholz’s first visit to London since being appointed German chancellor last year. In his brief time in office, dominated by events in Ukraine, he’s already presided over a sea change in Germany’s approach to Russia.

He’s sharply increased defence spending, gone along with EU sanctions and agreed to supply Ukraine with weapons. But in Boris Johnson, he’ll meet a man who wants him to go further and faster.

Germany has just agreed to the latest round of EU sanctions, which includes a ban on the import of Russian coal, but Johnson will be urging the chancellor to speed up moves against Russian gas and oil.

That’s a much tougher prospect. Germany depends on Russia for a quarter of its energy needs. Weaning itself off that kind of dependence, Berlin says, cannot happen overnight without wrecking the German economy.