Two missiles fell near the Kramatorsk railway station in the Donetsk region as thousands were trying to evacuate the area, Ukrainian officials said Friday. The shrapnel allegedly killed 52 people and injured at least 100.
Kramatorsk is located in the Donbass region, within the jurisdiction of the independent republics. A close fight is underway between some 60,000 of the most highly trained Ukrainian troops and the Russian and DNR forces. The Ukrainian army has long been entrenched in heavily fortified positions close to the Donetsk People’s Republic to prepare for a final assault which, according to documentary evidence, was to take place in March.
Since February 24, the day of the Russian forces ‘invasion of Ukraine, Ukrainian forces’ heavy artillery and mortar fire has begun to target casual civilian targets inside the autonomous Donbass, causing a steady stream of casualties.
Now that the Russian forces have withdrawn from Kiev, the Russian army is increasing its forces to surround the Ukrainian army. The goal is to form a pocket and then subsequently launch a final assault on Ukrainian positions to free the threatened and bombed areas of the autonomous republics from the threat.
However, the usual problem arises in this war: the Ukrainian forces are also established in the cities, in the villages. There is also another point to bear in mind: Ukrainian forces avoid taking civilians out of their homes and evacuating safer places. We have seen this in Mariupol and in other circumstances.
So in Kramatorsk the missiles launched near the station have the effect of discouraging the exodus , which is not convenient for the Russians. In fact, in addition to avoiding involving civilians, especially in largely loyal areas, Moscow knows very well that by making civilian victims it triggers international reproach interested in clockwork for the victims used as a weapon of war, as we have seen in Syria in the case of Aleppo and Idlib.
In other words, Russia hopes that civilians will come out of the cities, why would it have to kill them in this case?
In other words, Russia hopes that civilians will come out of the cities, why would it have to kill them in this case? It is not rational to carry out a carnage, especially when it comes to the area that will return to the jurisdiction of the Donbass. Instead, the Russians’ objective is precisely the evacuation of civilians. This would make it possible to facilitate liberation and annihilation and to economize one’s forces which otherwise would have to face serious losses.
So the question is as always, Cui Prodest? This is the first question not asked, while today’s media have come out with editorials that make a thousand and one considerations while avoiding this simple reasoning.
Setting aside these easy considerations, the Western media have proposed only the version of the massacre made knowingly by the Russians (or pro-Russians).
Therefore, as usual, the accusations are unbalanced and very harsh , even in the absence of the representation of the context and of investigative findings. Just to give more emphasis to the story, – if ever it were needed – the missile bears the words “for children”, as seen in the Guardian photo below:
In short, cruelty personified cannot be escaped, and every dissenting person would be accused of being an inhuman.
But for the Telegram channel of the territorial defense headquarters of the DPR there are no doubts: Ukrainian troops have launched a missile attack with Tochka-U against the Kramatorsk railway station.
I have read dozens of Western sources and they all agree that they blame Russia or the pro-Russians. But there is a detail that is not mentioned anywhere: Kramatorsk is in the Donbass , so the population is partly Russian-speaking. The question then is: shouldn’t one investigate thoroughly before saying that the Russian side wants to kill the one who in all of Ukraine is the most likely not to be hostile against the Russians and pro-Russians?
But coming out of the tunnel: if these atrocities cause horror, then it would not be desirable not to exacerbate the war again with new weapons and with increasingly rigid attitudes, and that an honorable compromise between the parties is reached, mainly taking into account the desire for self-determination of peoples, a principle sanctioned and defended by the UN?
Furthermore, there is another consideration to be made: civilian deaths to date throughout Ukraine in war are more than a thousand. The question then is: Didn’t these people all die in the same way, that is, unjustly? Have political leaders had opportunities to avoid war, and subsequently to enact an honorable deal? Why didn’t this happen?
Then there is the other evidence, that of the conduct of a mode of war that favors inhabited centers. This is a choice of the Ukrainian army. A consciously made choice, strategically useful but unfair with regard to civilians, because it increases the number of victims tenfold.
This system was mainly implemented in Mariupol. In this city – according to numerous testimonies taken by the journalist Giorgio Bianchi and other journalists – the Ukrainian forces have shielded themselves from civilians. Now in the light of this reality, is it not shameful to use Kramatorsk instrumentally to give new reasons for the continuation of the war?
The situation this morning: the media have made a barrier and have already understood the authorship of the attack; The White House announced Friday that President Joe Biden ‘s administration will support an investigation into the train station attack. At the same time, US President Joe Biden accused Russia of committing a “horrible atrocity” in Kramatorsk. So much to fuel the cognitive bias….
#Kramatorsk Nouveau crime de guerre. La police ukrainienne nous a envoyé des photos et des vidéos. Nous ne pouvons décemment diffuser que ces documents. La référence du débris du missile indique que c’est un “tochka”, couramment utilisé par la Russie #Ukraine @TF1Info @lci_tf1 pic.twitter.com/bVTbFyBgMu
— Benoit Christal (@benchristal) April 8, 2022
And now some technical remarks. For the Russian side and according to US experts, the missiles that hit were Kramatorsk clearly of the Tochka-U type. This is relevant because the Tochka-U missile is withdrawn by the armed forces of the Russian Federation, “ it was officially withdrawn from service (in 2020) with the missile brigades in connection with the passage to Iskanders.
This information would also be corroborated by the fact that there is not a single video showing the use of Tochka-U in combat by the Russian military or the armies of the DPR and LPR in the Donbass (although we assume they will be taken from storage bases. long-term) At the same time, there are many videos on the combat use of the Iskander and other types of missiles. And these are always precise weapons. At the same time, Ukraine uses Tochka-U everywhere, including to strike in Donetsk, where it previously carried out a similar massacre.
It should be noted that previously Russian forces actually hit Ukrainian forces in Kramatorsk (see here )… This has happened and will inevitably continue to happen as long as the war is ongoing. And war is not about killing civilians, but it has right or wrong objectives.
The comment from the Russian Defense Ministry:
“The Russian Defense Ministry refutes the Kiev regime’s statements about the alleged missile attack on the Kramatorsk railway station on April 8 in the Donetsk region. On April 8, the Russian Armed Forces had no fire missions in the city of Kramatorsk and were not planned.
We emphasize in particular that the Tochka-U tactical missiles, fragments of which were found near the Kramatorsk railway station and published by eyewitnesses, are used only by the Ukrainian armed forces.
In the past 24 hours, Ukrainian troops have fired more than 250 artillery shells and mortar bombs on the territory of the Donetsk People’s Republic alone.
The carnage of Kramatorsk is what happens almost every day in the Donbass in total silence
“The areas of 10 settlements of the Republic were bombed. As a result of the Ukrainian attack, 23 civilians, including a child, were injured, the DPR People’s Militia said in a statement.
In particular, the administration and kindergarten of the city of Yasinovataya were bombed, 10 rockets from the Grad were fired at Aleksandrovka. A school in Rubizhne, in the Lugansk People’s Republic, where humanitarian aid was distributed, was bombed. According to eyewitnesses, seven people were killed.
On March 14, 2022, a division of the 19th Separate Missile Brigade of the Ukrainian Armed Forces attacked downtown Donetsk with a Tochka-U missile , killing 17 people on the spot and injuring 36 other civilians.
The system of two weights and two measures applies
It goes without saying that these evidences are fog in the wind because they have been stolen from the daily bulletins of the Western media. It should be worth something that the “Tochka U” missile over the city of Kramatorsk continues to be in the normal equipment of the Ukrainian armed forces. And in the unconfirmed hypothesis that it is another type of missile (but the US also talks about Tochka U), why should Moscow deliberately want to claim victims in the territories considered more friendly, while the most hostile cities have been spared?
While international disapproval is rightly almost total today, the two weights and two measures method continues to be applied. As a friend of hers said about her FB account tonight “We will pay heavily for our double standards. There is nothing more than hypocrisy that angers the Lord God. The Scripture is very clear ”.
VP News
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UPDATED APRIL 9, 2022 AT 10.11
