A Russian glide bomb attack killed at least 30 people on two civilian buses in the eastern front-line city of Kramatorsk, according to Ukrainian rescue officials. Three more died in the nearby village of Bilenke, part of the Kramatorsk community, and 18 were wounded, said Donetsk regional head Vadym Filashkin. He accused Russia of deliberately targeting buses to maximize civilian casualties.
Kramatorsk and neighboring Slovyansk lie in what Ukraine calls a "fortress belt" that Moscow is attempting to seize as part of its claim to the entire Donbas industrial region. Images from local prosecutors showed the charred remains of a bus with debris and victims scattered on the road.
The attack follows a dramatic surge in Russian strikes across Ukraine. According to the UN, Ukraine saw more civilians killed by August this year than in all of 2025. On Wednesday, a Russian strike destroyed a five-storey apartment block in Pryluky east of Kyiv, killing 22 people, including five children. Three of those children were one year old.
President Volodymyr Zelensky said the strike "will not go without our response" and called for the world to "react harshly" to Russia's "evil" attacks. He demanded "concrete action through new defence packages for the protection of Ukraine."
UK Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband visited the Pryluky strike site with Zelensky and announced additional British sanctions targeting Russia's war machine, shadow fleet, oil companies, cryptocurrency networks and war financing.
Donetsk regional head Filashkin ordered all public transport in Kramatorsk and Slovyansk halted and urged remaining residents to evacuate to safer areas. "We have no right to risk the lives of passengers and drivers," he said.
Russia has not commented on the Kramatorsk attack. Moscow has justified the invasion as protecting Donbas, which is predominantly Russian-speaking. Ukraine and its allies reject this claim as baseless.
Kramatorsk has faced nearly daily Russian attacks as military frontlines move closer to the city's east. Glide bombs, fitted with winglets to guide them toward targets, have intensified strikes on both Kramatorsk and Slovyansk. In late August, nine glide bombs struck Kramatorsk in a single day.
Russian air raids on Kyiv now occur almost continuously. On Thursday, four people died and two were injured in the latest attack on the capital. The strikes force schoolchildren into underground shelters, shut businesses, disrupt transport, and damage energy and water infrastructure. Kyiv's metro briefly halted all train traffic Thursday due to voltage drops from power cuts.
Ukraine faces severe shortages of interceptor missiles and has limited ability to stop incoming Russian weapons. Families now rely on early warnings from officials to reach metro shelters.