At least 30 people were killed after Russian glide bombs struck two civilian buses in Kramatorsk, a front-line city in eastern Ukraine's Donetsk region. Some reports put the death toll at 33. At least 18 people were wounded in the attack.

Donetsk regional head Vadym Filashkin said three additional people were killed in the nearby village of Bilenke, part of the Kramatorsk community. He accused Russia of deliberately targeting buses carrying passengers in order to kill as many civilians as possible.

Kramatorsk city council called the strike a "horrific crime committed by the Russian army against the civilian population." "Once again, the Russians have struck a location where there are absolutely no military targets," it said.

Images released by local prosecutors showed the burning metal shell of a bus, debris, and victims on the road. Moscow had not commented on the attack at the time of reporting.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky condemned the strike. "This strike will not go without our response," he said. In a post on Telegram, he added: "Russia is trying to destroy all life in Donbas, and the world needs to react to this. React harshly - exactly as the Russians deserve for all the deaths they have caused."

Zelensky also offered his condolences to the families and loved ones of those killed.

Following the attack, Filashkin appealed to all remaining residents of the eastern front-line region to relocate to safer parts of Ukraine. He ordered all public transport in the area to halt, citing the sharp deterioration of security in Kramatorsk and neighbouring Slovyansk. "We have no right to risk the lives of passengers and drivers," he said.

The two cities form part of what has been described as a fortress belt that Russian forces are attempting to seize as part of President Vladimir Putin's stated claim to the entire Donbas region. Donbas comprises the Luhansk and Donetsk regions. With most of Luhansk already under Russian control, Moscow is also aiming to capture the remaining roughly 20 percent of Donetsk territory still held by Ukraine.

For much of the war, Kramatorsk served as a logistics and supply hub for the Ukrainian military. It has since come under near-daily Russian attack as Russian forces advance closer to the east of the city. Glide bombs — conventional munitions fitted with winglets that allow them to glide toward a target rather than fall directly — have been used repeatedly against Kramatorsk and Slovyansk. In late August, as many as nine glide bombs were fired at Kramatorsk in a single day.

The Kramatorsk strike is part of what authorities describe as an intensive pre-winter wave of Russian attacks across Ukraine. According to the United Nations, more civilians were killed in Ukraine by August of this year than in all of 2025.

In a separate attack earlier this week, a Russian strike destroyed a five-storey residential building in Pryluky, east of Kyiv, killing 22 people, including five children. Three of those children were one year old.

UK Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband visited the Pryluky strike site alongside Zelensky. He described the attack as evidence of Putin's "evil intent and evil strategy." Miliband announced additional British sanctions targeting Russia's war machine, including measures against the shadow fleet, oil companies, cryptocurrency channels, and war financing. He told Zelensky the UK would stand with Ukraine "as long as it takes for you to prevail in this conflict."

Russia has also continued launching near-constant air raids on Kyiv. On Thursday, police in the capital reported four people killed and two injured in the latest Russian attack on the city. Air raid sirens have been sounding almost continuously, forcing schoolchildren into underground shelters, disrupting businesses, and halting public transport.

Russian strikes on Ukraine's energy infrastructure are causing widespread power outages and affecting water supplies. Water authorities in Kyiv warned on Thursday that pressure was dropping across the city's right bank due to power cuts. The capital's metro network briefly suspended all train services following a voltage drop from external power sources. Services later resumed, though at reduced frequency.

Moscow has repeatedly cited the protection of Russian-speaking populations in Donbas as justification for its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, launched in 2022. Ukraine and its allies reject that claim as baseless.