Russian Airstrike Hits Ukraine Train StationUkrainian state railway officials say 50 people were killed, including five children, and at least 87 were wounded Friday in a Russian rocket attack on a railway station in east Ukraine that was being used to evacuate civilians. Two rockets are said to have struck the station in Kramatorsk. Reuters reports that the governor of the Donetsk region said thousands of people were at the station trying to leave for safer areas as the region readies for a major Russian offensive. Also on Friday, U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin spoke with Ukraine’s minister of defense, Oleksii Reznikov, to discuss “the needs of the Ukrainian military to defend its country,” VOA National Security Correspondent Jeff Seldin reported. Austin also praised Slovakia’s Friday announcement that it will send S-300 air defense systems to Ukraine, calling the system “a critical defensive capability.” He added that the U.S. “"will continue to coordinate with our allies and partners to support the needs of the Ukrainian military and people." Russia’s defense ministry rejected the reports that Russia was responsible for the attack on the train station in Kramatorsk, describing them as a “provocation.”\n\nThe Russian ministry issued a statement claiming the missiles used in the strike, Tochka-U, are used only by Ukraine’s armed forces and that Russian troops had not made any strikes against Kramatorsk. However, the website Defence Blog reported March 31 that Russian military vehicles carrying the recently retired missiles had been photographed in a convoy as part of the Ukraine invasion force. Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba called the attack “deliberate slaughter.” The European Union formally enacted more sanctions on Russia Friday, as European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell traveled to Kyiv in a show of support for Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.\n\nThe new measures include bans on the importation of coal, wood and chemicals and a block on all transactions with four Russian banks.\n\nRussian troops have fully withdrawn from northern Ukraine to Belarus and Russia, Britain’s Defense Ministry said Friday. The intelligence update said some of the forces likely will be deployed to east Ukraine to fight in the Donbas, a Ukrainian region bordering Russia. Meanwhile, Russia provided its most stark assessment of its invasion, admitting a “tragedy” of rising troop losses and feeling the economic sting from a wide range of sanctions.\n\nThe White House called out Friday the “horrific and devastating images” of the train station attack. White House spokeswoman Kate Bedingfield noted in an interview with CNN the U.S. will continue to support Ukraine against Russia’s assault.\n\nLate Thursday Zelenskyy said the situation in the town of Borodianka is worse than that in Bucha. Borodianka is about 60 kilometers northwest of Kyiv. Zelenskyy said “it is significantly more dreadful there. Even more victims from the Russian occupiers.”\n\nStories of atrocities inflicted on northern Ukrainians by the Russians have emerged, prompting more countries to expand and further tighten sanctions on Russia.\n\nU.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken warned Thursday that more credible reports of Russian atrocities against Ukrainian civilians are coming out of the war-ravaged country and vowed that “one day, somehow, there will be accountability” for Moscow. The top U.S. diplomat, after meeting with an array of NATO and allied foreign ministers in Brussels, said, “The revulsion at what the Russian government is doing is palpable.”\n\nRussia has denied killing civilians in Bucha.\n\nBlinken said the U.S. and its NATO allies remain wholly committed to supplying Ukraine with more arms to defend itself against Russia.\n\nUkrainian Foreign Minister Kuleba welcomed new Western sanctions against Russia but called for further measures, including a full embargo on Russian oil and gas sales, blocking all Russian banks from the SWIFT banking system and closing ports to Russian vessels and goods.\n\nThere is a mounting death toll from the six-week-long war, including Ukrainian civilians and fighters from both sides. VOA’s Jeff Seldin, Patsy Widakuswara and Masood Farivar contributed to this report. Some information for this report came from Reuters.