Ukrainian officials say at least 50 people have been killed, including five children, and over 100 wounded by a Russian rocket strike on a railway station in east Ukraine, where civilians were trying to evacuate to safer parts of the country.
The state rail company said two Russian rockets struck a station in the city of Kramatorsk, which was being used to evacuate civilians from areas being bombarded by Russian forces.
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About 4,000 people, most of them elderly, women and children, were at the station when it was struck, Kramatorsk Mayor Oleksander Honcharenko said.
Russia's Defence Ministry denied launching a missile strike on the station, saying its army had no targets assigned in Kramatorsk on Friday.
Moscow has denied targeting civilians since invading Ukraine on February 24.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said there were no Ukrainian troops at the station when the attack occurred.
"The inhuman Russians are not changing their methods. Without the strength or courage to stand up to us on the battlefield, they are cynically destroying the civilian population," Mr Zelenskyy said.
"This is an evil without limits. And if it is not punished, then it will never stop."
Ukraine's Prosecutor General Iryna Venediktova on Friday described the deadly missile strike on a rail station as a "crime against humanity."
Pavlo Kyrylenko, the Governor of the Donetsk region, said the Russians "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," he said.
Mr Kyrylenko published a photograph online showing several bodies on the ground beside piles of suitcases and other luggage. Armed police wearing flak jackets stood beside them.
Another photo showed rescue services tackling what appeared to be a fire, with a pall of grey smoke rising into the air.
The images could not be immediately verified.
Three trains carrying evacuees were blocked in the same region of Ukraine on Thursday after an air strike on the line, according to the head of Ukrainian Railways.
Ukrainian officials say Russian forces have been regrouping for a new offensive.
After failing to take Ukraine's capital, Russia has shifted its focus to Donbas, a mostly Russian-speaking industrial region in eastern Ukraine where Moscow-backed rebels have been fighting Ukrainian forces for eight years and control some areas.
Ukrainian officials warned residents this week to leave as soon as possible for safer parts of the country.
The officials said they and Russia had agreed to establish multiple evacuation routes in the east.
Kramatorsk is located in government-controlled territory.
Russia's invasion has seen more than 4 million people flee abroad, killed or injured thousands, turned cities into rubble.
ABC/wires
