Local journalist caught first moments after Kramatorsk attack on camera
Friday, 8 April 2022, 20:26
Oleksiy Merkulov, cinematographer for Donecchyna TB [Donetsk region TV], a local media company, was able to record the first moments after the Russian cluster shell explosion on the Kramatorsk train station.
Source: Merkulov’s video recording on Golos Ameriki [Voice of America]
Details: Merkulov was filming a report on the evacuation of civilians from the city. For example, he had some footage of volunteers giving out hot tea and food to all those who needed it, and of passengers preparing to board a train.
The footage after the explosion shows a car burning on the street, and several bodies of those killed in the attack.
People who ran inside the train station had blood on their clothes and belongings. One man was running towards the station with a pet carrier completely covered in blood.
Merkulov’s video shows that inside the train station itself, immediately following the explosion, people fell to their knees trying to hide from the shells which could fly in any direction. A stray dog was running among the people.
Background:
- At 10:30 on 8 April Russian troops deployed a Tochka-U complex to carry out cluster shelling on the Kramatorsk railway station from the territory of the Luhansk region: 50 people were killed in the attack, including children, another 100 – wounded.
- President Volodymyr Zelenskyy of Ukraine responded to the attack by urging the world to react strongly , because unpunished evil will cause even more suffering in the future.
- Ambulances took the most severely injured victims of the attack to the Dnipropetrovsk region.
Charles Michel, Head of the European Council, who is on an official visit to Kyiv, said that Ukraine urgently needs to be provided with even more weapons. President of France Emmanuel Macron also responded to the shelling, saying that his thoughts are with its victims and urging Ukrainians to flee to the EU.
