Strike hits a bus stop in Kramatorsk
A Russian guided bomb exploded next to public buses filled with passengers in eastern Ukraine, killing 30 people, Ukrainian authorities said on Thursday. The attack took place near a bus stop in Kramatorsk, in the Donetsk region. Public transport was suspended in the area.
Oleksandr Honcharenko, head of the city’s military administration, said Russia was targeting civilians. He also said rescue efforts were hampered by subsequent Russian attacks using small drones.
The strike formed part of a wider wave of attacks that worsened power outages in Kyiv. The fighting has increasingly involved long-range aerial attacks while ground forces remain largely deadlocked along the front line.
More casualties reported in other cities
The Kramatorsk attack followed a Russian missile strike a day earlier in Pryluky, a town in northern Ukraine. That attack killed 22 people, including five children. At least 54 people were wounded, and rescuers searched the rubble of a residential building.
Some survivors remained in heavily damaged apartments because they could not find alternative accommodation.
Late Wednesday, Russian drones also struck Kyiv’s Obolonskyi and Desnianskyi districts. Police said four people were killed and 12 were injured, including four children. Bomb disposal specialists defused two unexploded ballistic missile warheads near residential buildings. Each warhead weighed about half a ton.
Ukraine’s energy company DTEK said the national grid operator had ordered emergency power outages in Kyiv. Regular scheduled rolling outages would be halted during the emergency shutdowns.
Ukraine seeks additional air defence support
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy visited Pryluky on Thursday with British Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband, who announced additional sanctions against Russia.
Zelenskyy warned that Russia could intensify daily missile and drone attacks as winter approaches. He called on NATO countries to provide further defence support, including anti-ballistic capabilities, ammunition for combat aircraft and interceptor systems.
Zelenskyy also said a Ukrainian delegation would meet US President Donald Trump’s representatives Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff for two days beginning Friday. The talks were expected to include strengthening Ukraine’s air defences.
Ukrainian attacks also reported inside Russia
Russian technology company Yandex said a data centre in the western Ryazan region was damaged in a Ukrainian drone attack and taken offline.
Ukraine also said its forces had struck a major oil refinery complex in Salavat, about 1,200 kilometres east of Moscow. Ukraine’s General Staff described it as one of Russia’s largest oil refining and petrochemical facilities. The claim could not be independently verified.
Ukrainian drones also reached the Omsk region in western Siberia. Regional governor Vitaly Khotsenko said most were shot down, but one reached a northern industrial hub. A report that the Omsk refinery was on fire had no official confirmation.
Turkey said it had presented proposals to Russia and Ukraine to protect civilian shipping in the Black Sea. Lithuania also deployed about 100 additional soldiers to help secure its border with Russia’s Kaliningrad exclave.
