At least 30 people were killed and 18 others wounded when a Russian glide bomb struck two civilian buses in Kramatorsk, a front-line city in eastern Ukraine, local officials said on Thursday.
The attack turned an ordinary journey into a scene of devastation. Images released by Ukrainian prosecutors showed the blackened remains of a bus, twisted metal and debris scattered across the road. The victims lay near the wreckage as emergency workers searched the area, according to BBC News.
Vadym Filashkin, head of the Donetsk region, accused Russian forces of deliberately targeting buses carrying passengers. He said public transport had been suspended in Kramatorsk and neighbouring Slovyansk because the security situation had sharply worsened.
“We have no right to risk the lives of passengers and drivers,” Filashkin said, urging residents who remained in the eastern front-line region to move to safer parts of Ukraine.
Three more people were killed in the nearby village of Bilenke, which is part of the Kramatorsk community, according to Ukrainian authorities.
President Volodymyr Zelensky condemned the attack and said it would not go unanswered. He called on Ukraine’s international partners to provide new air-defence systems and other military support.
“Russia is trying to destroy all life in Donbas,” Zelensky said, urging the world to respond firmly.
Kramatorsk and Slovyansk form part of Ukraine’s so called fortress belt, a chain of cities that Russian forces are seeking to capture as Moscow presses its claim to the entire Donbas region. Kramatorsk served for much of the war as an important logistics centre for Ukrainian forces, but has faced increasingly frequent attacks as Russian troops advance closer.
The strike came a day after a Russian missile destroyed part of a five storey apartment building in Pryluky, east of Kyiv. At least 22 people were killed, including five children. Three of the children were only one year old.
British Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband, who met Zelensky in Kyiv, said the Pryluky attack revealed what he called Russian President Vladimir Putin’s “evil intent and evil strategy”. He announced further British sanctions targeting Russia’s war machine, oil companies, cryptocurrency networks and shadow fleet.
Russia has not commented on the Kramatorsk attack. Meanwhile, Russian strikes have continued across Ukraine, damaging homes, transport networks and energy facilities. In Kyiv, fresh attacks killed three people and wounded 14, while power cuts disrupted water supplies and forced schoolchildren into shelters.
The United Nations says more civilians have been killed in Ukraine by August this year than during the whole of 2025, as the war enters another dangerous phase. Russian attacks on Ukrainian cities and infrastructure have intensified, while Ukraine continues to face shortages of interceptor missiles needed to stop incoming weapons.
