At least 33 people are dead after a Russian glide bomb tore into two city buses in Kramatorsk, the frontline Donetsk city Ukraine has been defending for years, on Thursday morning. Another 18 people were wounded in what local authorities are calling a deliberate strike on civilians — one of the deadliest single attacks of the entire war.
The blast hit at around 10 a.m. local time on a street where the two buses were running their normal routes, police said. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy described the scene as a bus stop. Within hours, the regional governor ordered all public transport in Kramatorsk and neighbouring Sloviansk to stop running, saying officials had "no right to risk" passengers' or drivers' lives.
File photo: Kramatorsk in Ukraine's Donetsk region, a key city on the front line. (Image: Artemka, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons)
What happened in the Kramatorsk bus attack
The Donetsk regional prosecutor's office posted photographs on Thursday showing bodies and debris scattered across the road in front of the burning metal shell of one of the buses. Police said both vehicles were hit by a glide bomb — a converted Soviet-era weapon dropped from aircraft and fitted with satellite-guided wing kits.
Early reports counted 12 dead. That number climbed through the day as rescue teams worked through the wreckage: regional authorities first reported 30 killed, then said rescue officials had confirmed 33 dead and 18 wounded. The toll makes Thursday's strike one of the largest single attacks on Ukrainian civilians this year.
Donetsk governor Vadym Filashkin accused Russia of "deliberately targeting civilians," writing on Telegram that "for them [the Russians], a bus with passengers is an attractive target precisely because one strike can kill as many people as possible." He added: "These are not 'the consequences of war,' nor dry statistics. These are people killed by the Russian army."
The Kramatorsk City Council called the strike "yet another horrific crime committed by the Russian army against the civilian population," adding: "Once again, the Russians have struck a location where there are absolutely no military targets."
There was no immediate comment from Moscow on the attack. Russia denies targeting civilians, though it has regularly pounded Ukrainian cities, towns and other targets since its full-scale invasion began in February 2022.
Why Kramatorsk keeps getting hit
Kramatorsk was home to some 150,000 people before the war and is one of the key cities Russia has not yet captured in the Donetsk region, which Moscow claims as part of Russia. It has served as a logistics and supply hub for the Ukrainian military for much of the war and sits inside the so-called "fortress belt" of defences Ukraine is fighting to hold.
Russian forces have edged close to the city's eastern edge, prompting calls for the civilians who remain to move to safer regions. Moscow has stepped up drone and guided-bomb strikes on Kramatorsk and other fortress-belt cities in recent weeks — in late August, as many as nine glide bombs were fired at Kramatorsk in a single day, according to local officials. Russia has demanded Ukraine hand over the rest of the Donetsk region still under its control before it stops fighting, which Kyiv refuses to do.
Illustrative photo: a FAB-500 aerial bomb — the Soviet-era munition type converted into satellite-guided glide bombs. (Image: George Chernilevsky, public domain, via Wikimedia Commons)
Same day, same war: the Yandex data centre fire
Thursday also brought the first confirmed major drone attack on a Russian data centre. Drones hit a major facility in the Ryazan region owned by Yandex, Russia's leading AI and technology company, the company said on Thursday. The strike caused a fire and forced Yandex to fully suspend the centre's operations while it deals with the consequences and restores affected services.
A Yandex spokesperson told AFP: "A drone attack caused a fire at the Yandex data center in Sasovo, affecting part of its infrastructure." The company said there were no casualties and that its core consumer services were not affected, though some services could be temporarily unavailable. Yandex Cloud separately told customers about electricity-supply problems in one data-centre "zone" and advised using other zones.
The Sasovo facility sits about 300 kilometres (186 miles) east of Moscow. Ryazan regional governor Pavel Malkov said on Telegram that two Ukrainian drones had been shot down over the region overnight and that "the roof of a business caught fire" in the Sasovo area. A website tracking internet outages in Russia showed a large spike in user complaints from the early hours of Thursday.
Andriy Kovalenko, the former head of Ukraine's official Center for Countering Disinformation, claimed Kyiv was behind the strike, writing on Telegram: "Two can play at this game." That claim has not been confirmed by Ukrainian authorities. The attack followed a wave of Russian strikes on Ukrainian data centres in recent weeks — previously there were no confirmed major Ukrainian drone attacks on Russian data centres, Reuters noted.
File photo: Yandex, Russia's largest technology company, runs the country's most popular search engine and the YandexGPT AI model. (Image: WikiFido, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons)
A brutal week for Ukraine's civilians
The Kramatorsk strike capped a brutal stretch. On Wednesday, a Russian cruise missile hit a five-storey residential building in Pryluky, in the northern Chernihiv region — the death toll there rose on Thursday to 22, including five children, Governor Vyacheslav Chaus said on Telegram. Zelenskyy said the cruise missile directly hit the building, about 150 kilometres east of Kyiv.
Separately on Thursday, three people were killed and 14 wounded in morning drone strikes on the capital Kyiv, Mayor Vitali Klitschko said. And a day earlier, dozens were killed in a massive Russian air attack across Ukraine that primarily targeted the country's power grid.
The United Nations has verified more than 17,000 civilian deaths since Russia's invasion began in February 2022, and says the real number is considerably higher. Ukraine's parliament's human rights commissioner, Dmytro Lubinets, said Russia was systematically destroying Kramatorsk.
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President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who described the Kramatorsk strike scene as a bus stop. (Image: President of Ukraine, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons)
Key Takeaways
- A Russian glide bomb hit two city buses in Kramatorsk on Thursday morning, killing at least 33 people and wounding 18 — one of the deadliest single attacks of the war.
- Donetsk's governor accused Russia of deliberately targeting civilians and ordered all public transport halted in Kramatorsk and Sloviansk.
- Kramatorsk is a key "fortress belt" city in Donetsk that Russia has not yet captured; glide-bomb strikes on it have intensified in recent weeks.
- On the same day, a drone attack caused a fire at Yandex's data centre in Russia's Ryazan region — the first confirmed major strike on a Russian data hub.
- The toll in Wednesday's Pryluky apartment strike rose to 22, including five children, and morning drone strikes on Kyiv killed three more.
- Moscow has not commented on the Kramatorsk strike. Russia denies targeting civilians.
FAQs
How many people were killed in the Kramatorsk bus attack?
At least 33 people were killed and 18 wounded, according to the latest figures from rescue officials cited on Thursday. The toll climbed through the day — early reports counted 12 dead, then regional authorities reported 30 — as rescue teams worked through the wreckage. One of the buses was left a burnt-out shell, with bodies and debris scattered across the road.
What is a glide bomb?
A glide bomb is a converted Soviet-era bomb — typically a FAB-series weapon like the FAB-500 — dropped from aircraft and fitted with satellite-guided wing kits that let it glide to a target dozens of kilometres away. Russia has used them heavily against frontline Ukrainian cities. In late August, as many as nine glide bombs were fired at Kramatorsk in a single day.
Why did Kramatorsk halt public transport?
Donetsk regional governor Vadym Filashkin ordered all public transport in Kramatorsk and neighbouring Sloviansk to stop running after the attack, saying officials had "no right to risk" the lives of passengers and drivers. He also appealed to the civilians still in the region to relocate to safer areas, warning that civilian transport had become "another way to kill Ukrainians."
What happened at the Yandex data centre?
Drones struck a Yandex data centre in Sasovo, in Russia's Ryazan region about 300 km east of Moscow, causing a fire. Yandex fully suspended the facility's operations, though its core consumer services were unaffected and there were no casualties. It is the first confirmed major attack on a Russian data centre, coming after a wave of Russian strikes on Ukrainian data centres.
Did Ukraine claim the Yandex strike?
No Ukrainian authority has officially claimed it. Andriy Kovalenko, the former head of Ukraine's Center for Countering Disinformation, wrote on Telegram that Ukrainian forces were behind it — "Two can play at this game" — but that is a claim by a former official, not a confirmed statement from Kyiv. Ryazan's governor said two Ukrainian drones were shot down over the region overnight.
What was the Pryluky attack?
A day before Kramatorsk, a Russian cruise missile directly hit a five-storey residential building in Pryluky, in Ukraine's northern Chernihiv region. The death toll rose on Thursday to 22, including five children, according to the regional governor. President Zelenskyy said the missile struck the building directly, about 150 km east of Kyiv.
Why it matters
Thursday's strike matters for two reasons. First, it shows civilian areas in Ukraine's east remain under direct, lethal threat even far from the most intense ground fighting — a bus route is about as ordinary a target as exists. Second, the Yandex data-centre fire marks a new kind of escalation: the long-range drone war is moving into digital infrastructure on Russian soil, after months of Russian strikes on Ukrainian data centres and power grids. Both sides are now hitting deeper, and civilians are paying the steepest price.
What happens next
Ukraine will press Western allies for more air defences — glide bombs are notoriously hard to intercept because they are launched from beyond the front line. Russia's fortress-belt campaign will likely continue around Kramatorsk and Sloviansk, and the transport shutdown ordered on Thursday may last. For the Yandex strike, watch whether Ukraine officially claims it and whether Russia retaliates against more Ukrainian infrastructure. India's three-part Russia-Ukraine peace plan, unveiled this week, now faces an even steeper climb. You can also follow Global Desk News for continuing coverage.
Sources
- Al Jazeera — "Russian attack on buses in Ukraine's Kramatorsk kills at least 33 people" (October 8, 2026)
- The Times — "Russia accused of killing 33 after glide bomb strikes bus stop" (October 8, 2026)
- AFP via Virgin Radio Dubai — "Russian bomb kills 33 in street in east Ukraine stronghold" (October 8, 2026)
- Reuters — "Drones hit Yandex data centre in first major attack on Russian data hub" (October 8, 2026)
- AFP via Kuwait Times — "Drone hits Yandex data center in first such attack on Russia" (October 8, 2026)
By GlobalDeskNews Staff