A strike blamed by Ukraine on Russia against a railway station in the east of the country that left at least 50 people dead can be classified as a crime against humanity, France said on Friday.
"They hit a station where there are refugees, civilians and so this can be seen as a crime against humanity," Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian told France 5 television on Friday, calling for experts to head to the scene in Kramatorsk to gather evidence so the perpetrators can be held to account.
At least 52 people were killed, including five children, and hundreds more injured in a rocket attack on a train station in the eastern Ukrainian city that is being used for civilian evacuations, according to Donetsk region governor Pavlo Kyrylenko.
"These crimes cannot remain unpunished. Experts must go there quickly and document urgently to provide proof of crimes against humanity," Le Drian continued.
'Abominable'
He said such crimes against humanity "of course" needed to be handled by the Hague-based International Criminal Court (ICC).
World leaders condemned the attack with US President Joe Biden accusing Russia of being behind an "horrific atrocity" while British Prime Minister Boris Johnson described it as "unconscionable".
President Emmanuel Macron on Friday denounced the attack as "abominable" and reiterated that France would "support the investigations so that justice is done."
"Ukrainian civilians fleeing to escape the worst. Their weapons? Prams, toy dolls, baggage. This morning at the station in Kramatorsk, families who were leaving experienced horror. Deaths by the dozens, hundreds injured. Abominable," Macron said in a tweet.
Evil with no limits
Le Drian denounced the "total cynicism" of Russia in the conflict, warning that the "war will last so long as the objectives set out by President (Vladimir) Putin are not reached".
He said Putin's immediate aim was to mark the 9 May victory day in World War II "with some trophies" and was clearly targeting taking the entire Donbas region in eastern Ukraine.
Meanwhile, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky described Russia as an "evil with no limits" after the attack and calls for a "firm global response".
Russia's defence ministry said suggestions it had carried out the attack were "absolutely untrue".
Instead, Russia's defence ministry has accused Kyiv of carrying out the attack, saying it wanted to use fleeing residents "as a 'human shield' to defend the positions of Ukraine's Armed Forces".
Descend into decay
The bombing came as European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell were in Kyiv to show solidarity with Ukraine.
The pair met President Zelensky after visiting a mass grave in Bucha, a town north of the capital where Russian forces are accused by Ukraine's allies of carrying out atrocities against civilians.
Von der Leyen warned Russia would descend into "economic, financial and technological decay, while Ukraine is marching towards a European future".
On Thursday, the EU approved an embargo on Russian coal and the closure of its ports to Russian vessels as part of a "very substantial" new round of sanctions that also includes an export ban and new measures against Russian banks.
In addition, it backed a proposal to boost its funding of arms supplies to Ukraine by €500 million ($544 million), taking it to a total of €1.5 billion.
So far, the bloc has frozen €30 billion in assets from blacklisted Russian and Belarusian individuals and companies under sanctions, it said Friday.
Borrell told journalists the EU would supply €7.5 million to train Ukrainian prosecutors to investigate war crimes, which Russia is accused of committing in the country.
(with wires)
