A Russian rocket attack on a packed train station in Ukraine’s Donetsk region has killed dozens of people and wounded many more, the Ukrainian government said, as fears rise of a renewed Russian onslaught in the east of the country.

At least 50 civilians - including five children - were killed and 87 were injured on Friday when the projectiles struck the city of Kramatorsk’s train station, where thousands had gathered to be evacuated, according to Pavlo Kyrylenko, the governor of Donetsk.

Mr Kyrylenko claimed Russian troops had deliberately targeted the station, accusing them of using cluster munitions. “The ‘Rashists’ (‘Russian fascists’) 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.

Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky also accused Moscow of killing civilians as part of its war strategy.

“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,” he said.

“This is an evil without limits. And if it is not punished, then it will never stop.”

Oleksander Honcharenko, the mayor of Kramatorsk, estimated that roughly 4,000 people were at the station when the rockets hit.

“Some people have lost a leg, others an arm. They are now receiving medical assistance. The hospitals are carrying out about 40 operations simultaneously,” he told an online briefing.

In the aftermath of the attack, Eduard Basurin, a pro-Russia separatist commander in Donetsk, claimed Ukraine was responsible for the attack. Later, the Russian defence ministry denied responsibility for the rocket strike, describing suggestions to the contrary as “absolutely untrue”.

Images posted online appeared to show several bodies lying beside piles of luggage.

The international community was quick to condemn Russia’s actions, with the EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell saying the “indiscriminate attack” in Kramatorsk was “yet another attempt to close escape routes for those fleeing this unjustified war”.

Washington decried the “horrific and devastating images” from the train station, while British foreign secretary Liz Truss said she was “appalled” by the reports, saying the targeting of civilians was a war crime. “We will hold Russia and Putin to account,” she added.

The UK’s prime minister Boris Johnson also described the deaths as a “war crime” that “will not go unnoticed or unpunished”.

“The attack at the train station in eastern Ukraine shows the depth to which Putin’s once vaunted army has sunk,” he said during a press conference at Downing Street.

The attack on the railway station comes after Ukrainian authorities urged civilians in the east of the country to flee ahead of a predicted rise in Russian bombardments. The Kremlin has withdrawn its troops from northern Ukraine and is expected to deploy many of them to the Donbas region, which comprises the provinces of Donetsk and Luhansk.

“Evacuate! The chances of saving yourself and your family from Russian death are dwindling every day,” Serhiy Gaidai, the governor of Luhansk province, said earlier this week.

Three trains carrying evacuees to safety were blocked in eastern Ukraine when the line was hit by air strikes on Thursday.

Since Russia invaded Ukraine on 24 February, Moscow has repeatedly denied targeting non-combatants. However, the UN estimates that 1,611 Ukrainian civilians have been killed so far in the conflict, noting that the true figure is likely much higher.

Last week, the Ukrainian army recaptured many towns around the Kyiv, which had been occupied by Russian troops. In Bucha, a suburb to the north-west of the capital, three mass graves were discovered. At least 320 civilians were killed there, according to the town’s mayor.

Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky has said the situation in the nearby town of Borodyanka is “significantly more dreadful” than the horrors uncovered in Bucha.

The Kremlin has denied committing war crimes in Bucha, claiming the bodies were “planted” by the Ukrainian authorities. However, satellite imagery appears to show corpses in the town’s streets during the Russian occupation.

As a result of recent Russian atrocities, the UK and the EU on Friday joined Washington in sanctioning Vladimir Putin’s two adult daughters.

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