Russian strike on two buses in Kramatorsk kills 33 people

A Russian glide bomb strike on two civilian buses in the frontline city of Kramatorsk has killed 33 people, rescue officials said. Another 18 were wounded. Donetsk regional head Vadym Filashkin accused Russia of deliberately targeting a passenger bus in order to kill as many civilians as possible.

Images released by local prosecutors show the burned metal shell of a bus, debris and some of the victims lying on the road. Rescuers said both buses caught fire and both were carrying passengers. Moscow has not yet commented on the attack.

Public transport halted

Filashkin urged anyone still in the Donetsk region to move to safer parts of Ukraine. Given the sharp deterioration in security in Kramatorsk and neighbouring Slovyansk, all public transport has been ordered to stop. He said there was no right to risk the lives of passengers and drivers.

Kramatorsk City Council called the strike a horrific crime by the Russian army against civilians and said the Russians had once again hit a place with no military targets.

Surge in attacks

Kramatorsk and Slovyansk form part of a so-called fortress belt that Russia is trying to capture as part of Vladimir Putin's claim to the whole Donbas industrial region. For much of the war Kramatorsk served as a logistics and supply hub for the Ukrainian military, but it now faces almost daily attacks as Russian forces advance closer to the east of the city. In late August, as many as nine glide bombs were fired at it in a single day.

Thursday's attack follows a dramatic increase in Russian strikes across the country. According to the UN, more civilians had been killed in Ukraine by August this year than in all of 2025. Early on Wednesday, a single attack destroyed a five-storey block of flats in Pryluky, east of Kyiv, killing 22 people, including five children.

President Volodymyr Zelensky offered condolences and said Ukraine's partners must provide concrete action through new defence packages. Earlier this week he had warned of intelligence pointing to a planned major Russian onslaught. Interceptor missiles are in short supply, leaving Ukraine little chance of stopping incoming Russian ballistic missiles.