Russian strike on buses kills 33, say officials, as deadly attacks on Ukraine surge

Officials reported that a Russian glide‑weapon strike hit two civilian buses in the frontline city of Kramatorsk, killing Thirty‑three people and wounding Another 18. Donetsk region head Vadym Filashkin said the attack targeted a bus carrying passengers, accusing Russia of seeking to inflict maximum civilian casualties. Images released by local prosecutors showed the burning wreckage of the bus amid debris and victims on the road. Kramatorsk and nearby Slovyansk form part of what officials describe as a fortress loop that Russia is attempting to seize as part of Vladimir Putin’s claim to the entire Ukrainian portion of Donbas. The strike follows a dramatic increase in Russian attacks across the country and a sharp rise in civilian casualties. According to the United Nations, Ukraine has suffered more civilian deaths by August this year than in all of 2025. In a separate incident on Wednesday, a Russian strike destroyed a five‑storey apartment building in Pryluky, east of Kyiv, killing twenty‑two people, including five children—three of whom were only one year old. Moscow has not commented on the latest attack, but rescue officials said the strike ignited a fire on the two buses that were carrying passengers. Filashkin urged anyone still present in the Donetsk area to relocate to safer parts of Ukraine. He added that, given the deteriorating security situation in the two neighbouring cities, all nationalist transport had been ordered to stop, stressing that “we person nary close to hazard the lives of passengers and drivers” and that civilian safety remained paramount. Russia frequently cites the “liberation” and “protection” of the predominantly Russian‑speaking Donbas as justification for its full‑scale invasion of Ukraine. The Donbas comprises Luhansk and Donetsk; while most of Luhansk is under Russian control, the Kremlin aims to seize the remaining twenty percent of Donetsk still held by Ukrainian forces. Read the full story at BBC News →