April 8, 2022 Russia-Ukraine news

The UK will send more air defense and anti-tank missiles to Ukraine as part of a new package of high-grade military equipment worth 100 million pounds ($130 million), British Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced Friday.

Speaking alongside German Chancellor Olaf Scholz in London, he also said Britain and Germany will be collaborating on energy security and renewables, as Europe aims to phase out its dependency on Russian fossil fuels.

“Today, I can announce that the UK will send a further £100 million worth of high-grade equipment to Ukraine's Armed Forces, including more Starstreak anti-aircraft missiles, which fire at three times the speed of sound, another 800 anti-tank missiles and precision munitions capable of lingering in the sky directly to their target,” he said.

“We will also send more helmets, night vision and body armor on top of the 200,000 pieces of non-lethal military equipment the UK has already dispatched,” Johnson said. 

The British and German governments will hold a joint cabinet meeting within the next year, and defense ministers will meet before the next NATO summit in June, Johnson further announced. 

France is ready “to go further” and ban Russian oil, French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire told CNN on Friday.

Le Maire called the attack on a railway station in Kramatorsk, which left at least 50 people dead, “a massacre” and said those responsible must be “identified, prosecuted and possibly convicted for these crimes.”

France did not want to wait and a ban on oil would be a “game changer,” Le Maire said, but added that European unity was needed to implement stricter sanctions on energy. 

Le Maire did stress that the current sanctions agreed by the EU were very effective and “the most heavy since the creation of the European union.”

The death toll from a missile strike on a train station in Kramatorsk, Ukraine, has risen to 50, said Pavlo Kyrylenko, the head of Donetsk region military administration.

In an update on Telegram, Kyrylenko said 50 people had died, five of whom were children, adding that 12 of the victims died after being taken to the hospital. 

Of the 98 wounded who were taken to medical facilities, 16 were children, 46 were women and 36 were men, Kyrylenko said.

In an earlier statement on Telegram, Kyrylenko had said the station was struck by an Iskander missile. This latest statement updates that a Tochka-U missile was used.

A new government campaign launched in Belgium is encouraging citizens and households to reduce their energy consumption to “be smart with energy and help Ukraine.”

The initiative will run for five weeks online and on all Belgian radio stations. 

Campaign materials published on a dedicated website offered “five simple tips will help you save energy in the short term, without losing comfort.”

The tips include turning down the thermostat by one degree, check the energy rating on home appliances such as refrigerators and freezers, leave the car at home more often and consider using a microwave to re-heat food as – according to the campaign — it uses 4 times less energy than a stove or oven.

Van der Straeten also asked Belgians to prepare for the winter: “Belgian homes consume almost the most energy in all of Europe,” she said urging citizens to invest in better insulation, solar panels, heat pumps and solar water heaters. 

To “set a good example,” the Belgian government is also reducing heating in all federal buildings by one degree a statement from Mathieu Michel, Belgium’s state secretary said.

Belgium imports 30% petroleum, 20% uranium and up to 6% natural gas from Russia according to figures of the country’s energy ministry. 

Minister Van der Straeten reiterated that there is no problem in terms of supplies to Belgium, but “no one can predict how the conflict will evolve, but we can prepare now.”

Other European countries such as France and Germany have also taken measures to reduce their energy dependency.

The head of Ukraine's state-owned railway company said one of the two strikes carried out by Russia on Friday fell down on an area adjacent to the Kramatorsk station, and “all of the people that were around and inside were hit by the pieces of the rocket." 

The station building itself was “also shelled” and “broken,” said Oleksandr Kamyshin, the head of Ukrainian Railways.

He added that Russian forces also bombed a bridge in the area on Thursday.

He told CNN at least 39 civilians had been killed and 87 injured by Russian shelling at the train station in the eastern Ukrainian city of Kramatorsk. Earlier Friday, the Donetsk regional police said around 30 people were killed and 100 injured.

“This case shows that they tried to kill civilians,” Kamyshin added.

The European Union import ban on Russian coal will take effect in August, a European source told CNN Friday.

EU member states on Thursday evening approved a fifth package of sanctions against Russia.

The package includes an import ban on all forms of Russian coal. This affects one fourth of all Russian coal exports, amounting to around 8 billion euros in loss of revenue per year for Russia, according to the European Commission.

The EU source said that the ban will not be immediate but rather a gradual phase out. There will be “a four-month wind-down period,” according to the source.

The package also includes the closing of EU ports to Russian vessels and a ban on exports of high-tech products to Moscow.  

Further details about the package are expected to be released later today in the Commission’s official journal.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky told Finland’s parliament on Friday that a “sanction cocktail, that would be remembered just like Molotov cocktails” is needed to halt Russian aggression.

Zelensky asked Finland to “show even more leadership” in the European Union, saying this will be “the biggest contribution in the security of Europe.”

He said that Ukraine needs weapons “that some of the EU partners have,” as well as “powerful efficient sanctions against Russia on a permanent basis.”

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Friday about 30 people have been killed in a missile strike at a railway station in the eastern city of Kramatorsk, and claimed nearly 300 have been wounded.

In an address to Finland’s parliament on Friday, Zelensky said the “Russian military hit the railway terminal,” adding “there are witnesses, there are videos, there are remnants of the missiles and dead people.”

He described the railway terminal as an “ordinary” and “rank-and-file,” with “people crowded waiting for the trains to be evacuated to the safe territory.”

Whilst saying that those “fighting for freedom” should be supported, Zelensky added that “ordinary people understand these things and this concept more than some influential leaders. Smaller countries understand it better than some of the bigger countries.”

Friday’s virtual address to the Finnish parliament was Zelensky’s twenty third address to a foreign parliament since Russia invaded Ukraine.

The Russian Ministry of Defense issued a statement Friday calling the missile strike on a railway station in the Ukrainian city of Kramatorsk a "provocation."

The statement mirrored recent denials of the indiscriminate killing of civilians in the Kyiv suburb of Bucha.

Ukrainian forces have the Soviet-designed Tochka missile in their inventory but it has also been used by Russian and separatist forces in the past.

Russia's military and senior officials have issued blanket denials of attacks against civilians, most recently claiming -- without evidence -- that the massacre of civilians in the Kyiv suburb of Bucha was staged.

The killing of civilians during the Russian occupation of the town has been extensively documented.