Live Updates: Toll rises from strike on Ukraine station

Ukrainian officials are raising the death toll from a missile strike on a packed train station in the eastern city of Kramatorsk, as local hospitals buckled under an influx of injured victims.

Donetsk regional governor Pavlo Kyrylenko said an updated count showed 39 people were killed in Friday's strike. Ukrainian officials had earlier put the figure at around 30. Officials put the number of injured anywhere from 87 to as many as 300.

Kramatorsk mayor Oleksandr Goncharenko told Ukrainian TV that between 30 and 40 surgeons were treating the wounded, and hospitals were unable to cope with the surge in admissions.

The office of Ukraine's prosecutor-general said about 4,000 civilians were in and around the station, most of them women and children. The Ukrainian government has been urging to leave the area before an expected new offensive by Russian forces.

Russian-backed separatists control part of the Donestsk region, but Kramatorsk remains under Ukrainian government control. ___ KEY DEVELOPMENTS IN THE RUSSIA-UKRAINE WAR: - Officials say Russian missile kills 30 civilians at train station - Congress votes to suspend Russia trade status, enact oil ban - UN General Assembly votes to suspend Russia from UN rights council - UN aid chief: I'm not optimistic' about Ukraine cease-fire - Russia is moving troops and focus toward the east, but that strategy carries risks as well - Ukrainian refugees find quickest route into US goes through Mexico - Go to https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine for more coverage ___ OTHER DEVELOPMENTS: BRUSSELS - The European Union has returned its ambassador to Ukraine to the capital, Kyiv, in a move that underscores the improved security situation there and the 27-nation bloc's commitment to the beleaguered country.

EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell made the announcement Friday during a visit to Kyiv where he joined EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen for talks with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

Borrell said the ambassador's return would help ensure that the EU and Ukraine's government can work together more directly and closely.

Russian forces sought to enter Kyiv in the days after its Feb. 24 invasion of Ukraine but despite severe losses and damage, the city withstood the attacks and the government was able to continue functioning from there.

Borrell called it "impressive" that Ukraine's government was fully functioning under "the very difficult circumstances." ___ ROME - The United Nations says prices for world food commodities like grains and vegetable oils reached their highest levels ever last month due to fallout from the war in Ukraine.

The UN Food and Agriculture Organisation said Friday its Food Price Index, which tracks monthly changes in international prices for a basket of commodities, recorded a double-digit percentage-point increase in March from the record level already set the previous month.

FAO said the index came in at 159.3 points last month, up 12.6% from February's all-time high since the index was created in 1990.

The Rome-based agency says the war in Ukraine was largely responsible for the 17.1% rise in prices for cereals, including wheat and all coarse grains. Russia and Ukraine together account for around 30% and 20% respectively of global wheat and maize exports.

___ LONDON - Britain has added two adult daughters of Russian President Vladimir Putin to its sanctions list, following similar moves by the U.S. and the European Union.

The government said Friday it is imposing asset freezes and travel bans on Putin's daughters Katerina Tikhonova and Maria Vorontsova, as well as Yekaterina Vinokurova, daughter of Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov.

Britain says it has sanctioned more than 1,200 Russian individuals and businesses since the invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24, including 76 oligarchs and 16 banks.

It says Western nations have collectively frozen 275 billion pounds ($360 billion), amounting to 60% of Russian foreign currency reserves.

___ KYIV, Ukraine - President Volodymyr Zelenskyy says about 30 people have been killed and around 100 injured following a rocket strike on the railway station in Kramatorsk in the east of the country.

Writing on social media platforms, Zelenskyy said thousands of people were present in the station at the time of the strike. The head of the Ukrainian railway service, Olexander Kamyshin, made similar comments about the strike.

Kramatorsk is a city in part of the Donetsk region that is controlled by the Ukrainian government, and its railway station was being used to evacuate civilians.

Zelenskyy lashed out at Russian forces, saying they were "cynically destroying the civilian population" and called it "an evil without limits." Russian-backed separatists in Donetsk have claimed that Ukrainian forces were responsible.

___ KYIV, Ukraine - The regional governor of Ukraine's Sumy region that borders Russia is urging local residents to avoid using forest roads, walking on roadsides, or approaching destroyed military equipment after Russian troops pulled out of the region.

Dmytro Zhyvytskyy warned Friday on the messaging app Telegram that locals are still in danger because of mines and other ammunition that the Russian forces left behind.

In a message apparently directed to local residents, Zhyvytskyy said any explosions in the area in the short term were likely to be sounds of rescuers and mine-clearing specialists at work deactivating the ammunition and other explosives.

He had said earlier this week that Russia no longer controlled any settlements in the region.

___ BRUSSELS - The European Union imposed has sanctions on two adult daughters of Russian President Vladimir Putin as part of a new package of measures targeting Russia for its invasion of Ukraine, according to two EU officials.

The EU included Maria Vorontsova and Katerina Tikhonova in its updated list of individuals facing assets freeze and travel bans. The two EU officials from different EU member countries spoke on condition of anonymity to The Associated Press because the updated list of sanctions has not been published yet.

The move from the European bloc follows a similar move two days earlier by the United States.

- By Samuel Petrequin and Raf Casert in Brussels.

___ BRUSSELS - Slovak Prime Minister Eduard Heger and two top European Union officials are in Kyiv looking to shore up the bloc's support for war-torn Ukraine.

Heger said in a tweet Friday that he, EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and EU foreign policy chief have come with trade and humanitarian aid proposals for President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and his government.

Part of that, Heger says is "to offer options for transporting grains, including wheat." Ukraine is a major world wheat supplier and Russia's war on Ukraine is creating shortages, notably in the Middle East.

He adds that the three want to help Ukraine on its path toward closer ties with the EU by "creating a ReformTeam." Ukraine has applied to join the EU, but was already sorely in need of reforms, notably to root out rampant corruption, years before Russian troops invaded in February.

___ LONDON - Britain's Defense Ministry has assessed that at least some of the Russian forces who had pulled out from northern Ukraine will be transferred to the eastern Donbas region to continue fighting.

In a daily update, the ministry says that many of these forces will require significant replenishment before being ready to deploy farther east, with any mass redeployment from the north likely to take at least a week minimum.

It says Russian shelling of cities in the east and south continues and Russian forces have advanced farther south from the strategically important city of Izium, which remains under their control.

___ COPENHAGEN, Denmark - Latvia says it has blacklisted 15 citizens of Russia and Belarus on grounds that their activities pose a threat to the nation's national security.

A list of nine Russians and six Belarus citizens was given by Latvia's State Security Service - the counterintelligence agency - to Interior Minister Marija Golubeva.

The State Security Service said Friday they include people who "may be involved in obtaining intelligence or providing support for Russia's foreign policy interests." It says among them are those who despite the crimes committed by Russian forces in Ukraine express support for the Kremlin.

Earlier this month, Latvia said it will close two Russia's consular missions and expel a total of 13 Russian diplomats and employees currently stationed in the Baltic country.

___ MOSCOW - Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov has acknowledged that Russia has suffered "significant losses of troops" during its military operation in Ukraine.

Peskov said: "Yes, we have significant losses of troops and it is a huge tragedy for us." Speaking in an exclusive interview with British broadcaster Sky on Thursday, Peskov also hinted that the operation might be over "in the foreseeable future." He said that Russian forces were "doing their best to bring an end to that operation." He said: "And we do hope that in coming days, in the foreseeable future, this operation will reach its goals, or we'll finish it by the negotiations between Russian and Ukrainian delegations." ___ CANBERRA, Australia - The first of 20 Bushmaster armored vehicles has left Australia for Ukraine, one week after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy specifically requested the Australian-manufactured four-wheel drives.

A Boeing C-17 Globemaster transport jet that can carry four Bushmasters left the east coast city of Brisbane for Europe on Friday, Prime Minister Scott Morrison said.

The 20 Bushmasters cost 50 million in Australian dollars, which is $37 million in US dollars.

The vehicles are in addition to $116 million in Australian dollars ($87 million in US dollars) in military and humanitarian aid previously committed to Ukraine.

Zelenskyy requested Bushmasters when he made a video address to the Australian Parliament on March 31.

"And as soon as he asked, we said yes," Morrison said.

___ WASHINGTON - The Biden administration on Thursday announced it is levying sanctions against Russia's largest military shipbuilding and diamond mining companies.

The move blocks their access to the US financial system as the United States looks to exact more economic pain on President Vladimir Putin for the invasion of Ukraine.

Alrosa is the world's largest diamond mining company and accounts for about 90% of Russia's diamond mining capacity, according to the US Treasury Department. Alrosa generated over $4.2 billion in revenue in 2021. Diamonds are one of Russia's top 10 non-energy exports by value.

The State Department also said it was blacklisting the United Shipbuilding Corporation, as well as its subsidiaries and board members.

The moves against the two-state owned companies come a day after the US announced it was targeting the two adult daughters of President Vladimir Putin, two of Russia's largest banks and banning new American investment in Russia.