Russian attacks targeting Ukrainian civilians, including in Bucha and Friday’s attack at a train station in Kramatorsk, are war crimes, according to Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
He told CBS’ “60 Minutes” that Ukraine’s security services have intercepted Russian communications that include discussions of targeting civilians.
“There are pilots in prison who had maps with civilian targets to bomb,” Zelenskyy said in a clip of the interview that will air in full Sunday.
Zelenskyy said “everyone who made a decision, who issued an order, who fulfilled an order” is guilty of war crimes. Asked if he holds Vladimir Putin responsible, Zelenskyy said, “I do believe he’s one of them.”
This week Ukrainian forces retaking territory around the capital of Kyiv after Russian troops retreated discovered evidence of atrocities against civilians. In the suburb of Bucha, bodies were left in the streets, some with hands tied behind their backs, and bodies were found in a mass grave.
“This means that they killed civilians, shot them,” Prosecutor General Iryna Venediktova said Friday.
A rocket strike killed at least 50 people and dozens more injured at a train station in the eastern Ukrainian city of Kramatorsk. Five children were among the dead, officials said.
“Like the massacres in Bucha, like many other Russian war crimes, the missile attack on Kramatorsk should be one of the charges at the court that must be held,” Zelenskyy said in his nightly video address Friday.
World leaders were quick to condemn the strike on the train station, where civilians were trying to evacuate.
“Where we are now is we’re going to support efforts to investigate the attack as we document Russia’s actions, hold them accountable,” White House press secretary Jen Psaki told reporters, calling the strike “another horrific atrocity.”
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Latest developments
►The Ukrainian prosecutor general’s office says approximately 67 bodies were buried in a mass grave near a church in Bucha, a northern Kyiv suburb where journalists and returning Ukrainians discovered scores of bodies on streets and elsewhere after Russian troops withdrew.
► Over 6,600 Ukrainians were evacuated along humanitarian corridors across three regions on Friday, Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk said.
► Ukrainian forces have “eradicated” some of the Russian units that invaded the country in late February, according to a senior Defense official. Some Russian units have only a handful of troops and vehicles left, the official said.
50 killed in rocket strike on Kramatorsk train station
A rocket strike targeting a train station in the eastern Ukrainian city of Kramatorsk Friday killed at least 50 people and injured dozens who were attempting to flee amid Russia’s new focus on the region, Ukrainian officials said.
There were about 4,000 civilians in and around the station when it was struck. According to regional governor Pavlo Kyrylenko, 98 people were hospitalized, including 16 children. Five children were among the dead.
The Russians used an SS-21 short-range ballistic missile in the attack, according to a senior Defense official who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss intelligence assessments. The Russian Defense Ministry denied targeting the station in Kramatorsk.
Microsoft disrupts cyberattacks against Ukraine
Microsoft intercepted cyberattacks from a Russian military-linked group of hackers targeting Ukrainian media organizations and US and European think tanks and government institutions this week, the company said.
Microsoft said it obtained a court order on Wednesday to take control of seven internet domains used by hackers, known as Strontium or Fancy Bear.
“We have since re-directed these domains to a sinkhole controlled by Microsoft, enabling us to mitigate Strontium’s current use of these domains and enable victim notifications,” Tom Burt, corporate vice president for customer security and trust, said in a statement.
A: World food prices reach highest levels ever due to war
World food commodity prices reached their highest levels for the second month in a row, the United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organization said in a Friday report.
The FAO Food Price Index averaged 159.3 points in March, about 13% up from February’s index level – already the highest level since the UN began tracking food prices with the index in 1990.
The agency credited ongoing war in the Black Sea region for the rising prices, noting the markets for staple grains and vegetable oils were particularly affected.
Over the last three years, Russia and Ukraine together accounted for 30% and 20% of global wheat and maize exports, respectively, according to the UN. The FAO Vegetable Oil Price Index increased more than 23% in March, largely because of rising costs for sunflower seed oil, of which Ukraine is the world’s leading exporter.
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Contributing: The Associated Press
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