Kyiv, 08 April (TIME MALTA)- Dozens of people were killed in a rocket attack on the train station in the eastern Ukrainian city of Kramatorsk on Friday as civilians raced to leave the Donbas region in the crosshairs of the Russian army.

By 4pm, the death toll had risen to 50, including five children.

The head of Ukraine's railway company said "over 100 were injured," in one of the deadliest strikes of the six week-old war.

AFP journalists on the scene saw the bodies of at least 20 people grouped and lying under plastic sheets next to the station.

Blood was pooling on the ground and packed bags were strewn outside the building in the immediate aftermath of the attack.

The remains of a large rocket with the words "for our children" in Russian was lying just adjacent to the main building.

The attack came as European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen and EU foreign policy chief Jose Borrell headed to Kyiv on Friday in a sign of solidarity with Ukraine.
The attack on the railway station showed "evil with no limits", Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said.

More than a month into Russian President Vladimir Putin's invasion of Ukraine, Moscow has shifted its focus to eastern and southern parts of the country after stiff resistance torpedoed its plans of an easy capture of the capital Kyiv.