Russia bombs two buses full of civilians in Kramatorsk and kills 33 people

BarcelonaAt least 33 people have died in a Russian bombing in the Ukrainian city of Kramatorsk, in the east of the country, against two city buses that were in circulation at the time and were full of passengers. According to Ukrainian authorities, 18 more people have been injured due to the bombing, which Kyiv has described as selective against civilians in a key bastion for Moscow.

Vadim Filashkin, head of the Donetsk region, has accused Russia of attacking the buses, full of passengers, to kill as many civilians as possible. The vehicles have been destroyed – only the metal structure and charred remains are left – and some of the victims were left lying on the road.

"The Russians are deliberately attacking civilians. For them, a bus full of passengers is an attractive target because, with a single attack, they can kill a higher number of people," pointed out Filashkin, who denounced that "Russia consciously ignores all imaginable rules of war and the norms of international humanitarian law."

Transport, target of "Russian terror"

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has noted that the aerial bomb struck a bus stop, while the police have indicated that the explosion occurred on a street where two buses with passengers on board were driving. For its part, the Donetsk region prosecutor's office has stated that there were two buses "at the epicenter" of the explosion. The institution has detailed that Russia used a UMPB D-30SN glide bomb and that it is investigating the attack as a war crime.

"Russia is once again attacking where there is no military target. Against a commuter bus, against civilian transport, against people who were simply going about their lives," remarked the Kramatorsk City Council, where before the war about 150,000 people lived and now a large part of the population has been evacuated due to the attacks by Russian troops, who are just a few kilometers from the city. In a statement after the shelling of the buses, the council denounced that civilian passenger transport has become a target "of Russian terror." This Thursday, a Russian drone attack also caused six deaths and 17 injuries in Kyiv and led to the interruption of electricity and water supply.

Another of the targets of Moscow's attacks in recent weeks has been Ukrainian data centers, and Kyiv responded this Thursday with a drone attack against a center located in the Russian region of Ryazan that is owned by Yandex, the leading Russian artificial intelligence and technology company. According to the company itself, the attack caused a fire that forced operations to stop.

In recent weeks, Ukraine has not eased up on air attacks on Russian territory either, especially against oil refineries, in one of the most violent periods of the war that began more than four years ago. This Thursday, in the Russian region of Kursk, one person died in a Ukrainian drone attack, according to regional authorities.

More than 60 dead in two days

Kramatorsk is one of the bastions that Ukraine retains in Donetsk, and this Thursday's bombing comes in a context of a significant increase in Russian attacks with bombs and drones in the city and other key strongholds of the Ukrainian defense, according to the Kramatorsk authorities. Beyond this area, Ukraine is immersed in a wave of Russian attacks, which have intensified and are causing a large number of civilian deaths.

Faced with the increase in attacks, Zelensky has asked Ukraine's allies that the condemnations of the attacks be translated into the delivery of new defense packages to reinforce Ukrainian capabilities, which have been greatly diminished in recent months. Moscow is taking advantage of this shortfall in the Ukrainian army to increase the bombings, which are now more lethal. "Supplies of anti-ballistic capabilities, ammunition for combat aircraft, and investments in interceptors: all of this directly helps to save lives every day," the Ukrainian president pointed out.

According to UN data, Ukraine has recorded more civilian deaths up to August of this year, coinciding with a slowing of the Russian advance across the country, than in all of 2025. In fact, the bombing of buses in Kramatorsk comes just one day after a Russian attack on an apartment block in Pryluky, in the Chernihiv region, caused at least 22 deaths, including five children. The apartment block was completely destroyed. This was the worst attack of the day, but it was not the only one. Russian bombs and drones also damaged five residential buildings in Dnipro and four blocks in Kremenchuk, in the Poltava region, according to Zelensky.

In the attack in Kremenchuk, two people died – a 72-year-old woman and a 40-year-old man – and more than 40 civilians were injured. Oleksandria and Zaporizhzhia were also targeted by Russian attacks, as was the capital, Kyiv, where two people died.

In the political and diplomatic sphere, Zelensky has urged the President of the United States, Donald Trump, to increase pressure on Russia. "You cannot, on one hand, negotiate with the Russians about future economic projects and, on the other, say that we find ourselves in a kind of diplomatic deadlock," said the Ukrainian president, who assured that Ukrainian negotiators will go to the United States on Friday and Saturday. All this while Russia maintains that a peace agreement is very difficult and asks for "guarantees for future generations".