Day 44 of Russia-Ukraine crisis: As it happened

The European Union approves an embargo on Russian coal — the first time the bloc has targeted the energy sector, on which they are heavily dependent — and the closing of its ports to Russian vessels.

The US Congress also votes to end normal trade relations with Moscow and codify the ban on Russian oil.

The UN General Assembly votes to suspend Russia from the UN Human Rights Council as punishment for the invasion of Ukraine.

A Ukrainian official warns residents in the east that they have a “last chance” to flee before a major Russian offensive expected in the Donbas region. However, trains evacuating residents are halted by Russian strikes on the only line still under Kyiv’s control.

The “new mayor” of Mariupol, put in place by pro-Russian forces, announces that around 5,000 civilians have died in the besieged southeastern Ukrainian city.

The World Health Organization (WHO) says it has confirmed over 100 attacks on health services in Ukraine as it calls for humanitarian access to Mariupol.

Here are the latest updates:

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12.05am: Missile kills at least 50 at crowded Ukrainian train station

A missile hit a train station where thousands of Ukrainians had gathered Friday, killing at least 50 and wounding dozens more in an attack on a crowd of mostly women and children trying to flee a new, looming Russian offensive in the country’s east, Ukrainian authorities said.

The attack that some denounced as yet another war crime in the 6-week-old conflict came as workers unearthed bodies from a mass grave in Bucha, a town near Ukraine’s capital where dozens of killings have already been documented following a Russian pullout.

Photos from the station in Kramatorsk showed the dead covered with tarps on the ground and the remnants of a rocket with the words “For the children” painted on it in Russian. About 4,000 civilians were in and around the station at the time of the strike, heeding calls to leave the area before fighting intensifies in the Donbas region, the office of Ukraine’s prosecutor-general said.

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11.55pm: Ukraine says 6,665 people evacuated from cities on Friday

A total of 6,665 people were evacuated from Ukrainian cities through humanitarian corridors on Friday, more than the 4,676 who escaped on Thursday, Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk said in an online post.

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10.55pm: US to support investigation of Ukraine train station attack

The White House said on Friday that the Biden administration will support investigations of the attack on a railway station in Ukraine that authorities said was packed with women, children and elderly refugees.

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9.45pm: Ukraine war pushes world food prices to record high

World food prices hit an all-time high in March following Russia's invasion of agricultural powerhouse Ukraine, a UN agency said on Friday, adding to concerns about the risk of hunger around the world.

The disruption in export flows resulting from the February 24 invasion and international sanctions against Russia has spurred fears of a global hunger crisis, especially across the Middle East and Africa, where the knock-on effects are already playing out.

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7.15pm: UK promises further $130 mln of military equipment for Ukraine

Britain will send Ukraine a further 100 million pounds ($130 million) of military support to Ukraine, Prime Minister Boris Johnson said on Friday after a meeting with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz.

“The UK will send a further 100 million pounds’ worth of high-grade military equipment to Ukraine’s armed forces, including more Starstreak anti-aircraft missiles ... another 800 anti-tank missiles and precision munitions capable of lingering in the sky until directed to their target,” Johnson said.

Britain will also provide more helmets, night-vision equipment and body armour, Johnson added at the news conference.

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6.50pm: EU leaders to discuss energy, Ukraine at extraordinary meeting on May 30-31

European Union leaders will meet on May 30-31 in an extraordinary summit to discuss the Ukraine war and the bloc’s energy situation.

“As discussed in Versailles and during the last European Council, a special European Council will take place on 30 and 31 May. On the agenda notably defence, energy and Ukraine,” EU Council president Charles Michel wrote on Twitter.

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5.25pm: Finland to expel two Russian diplomats due to war in Ukraine

Finland will expel two Russian diplomats and discontinue the visa of one due to Russia’s attack on Ukraine, Finland’s government said on Friday.

Earlier on Friday, Finland’s President Sauli Niinisto called for “maximum” support by Western countries for Ukraine in Kyiv’s battle against what Russia calls “a special operation”.

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4.25pm: Russia’s Lavrov says Belarus should become security guarantor for Ukraine

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Friday that Belarus should provide security guarantees for Ukraine in the future, once Kiev affirms its neutral status.

“At the request of the Ukrainian side, its neutral, non-bloc, non-nuclear status should be accompanied by security guarantees,” Lavrov said.

“We proposed that the Republic of Belarus should, of course, be among such guarantor countries.”

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3.40pm: Missile kills 30 evacuees at busy Ukrainian train station

A missile hit a crowded train station in eastern Ukraine that was an evacuation point for civilians, killing dozens of people, Ukrainian authorities said Friday after warning they expected even worse evidence of war crimes in parts of the country previously held by Russian troops.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said that thousands of people were at the train station when the missile struck. The Russian Defense Ministry denied targeting the station in Kramatorsk, a city in the eastern Donetsk region, but Zelensky blamed Russia for the bodies lying in what looked like an outdoor waiting area.

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2.20pm: Czech Republic will spend 2 bln euros on looking after Ukraine refugees in 2022

The Czech Republic’s costs for handling the influx of refugees from Ukraine this year are estimated at 2 billion euros ($2.17 billion), Finance Minister Zbynek Stanjura said on Friday.

The country has issued 272,000 special visas to Ukrainian refugees as of April 7, the interior ministry said.

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2.15pm: Separatist commander says missile strike on railway station is Ukrainian “provocation”

A commander from the self-proclaimed Donestsk People’s Republic in eastern Ukraine said a missile strike on Friday on a railway station in Kramatorsk where about 30 people were killed was a Ukrainian “provocation”, the TASS news agency reported.

Ukraine’s state railway company said two Russian missiles had struck a station in the city of Kramatorsk being used by civilians trying to evacuate from areas under bombardment by Russian forces.

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1.53pm: Russian missile kills 30 civilians at train station

Ukrainian leaders predicted more gruesome discoveries would be made in reclaimed cities and towns as Russian soldiers retreat to focus on eastern Ukraine, where officials said a Russian rocket attack on a packed train station used to evacuate civilians killed over 30 people Friday.

Hours after warning that Ukraine’s forces already had found worse scenes of brutality in a settlement north of Kyiv, President Volodymyr Zelensky said that “thousands” of people were at the station in Kramatorsk, a city in the eastern Donetsk region, when it was hit by a missile.

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