Russian glide bomb hits civilian buses in Kramatorsk, killing at least 33 in deadliest single strike of 2026

A Russian guided bomb dropped from aircraft struck two city buses on Yuvileina Street in Kramatorsk, a frontline city in eastern Ukraine's Donetsk region, around 10 a.m. local time on Thursday, setting both vehicles ablaze and killing at least 33 people — the deadliest single attack of 2026 so far, according to local authorities. Eighteen more people were wounded. Three additional deaths were reported from shelling in the nearby village of Bilenke.

The strike hit next to a dental clinic. Images released by Ukrainian police showed bodies strewn across a debris-littered street and the charred shell of a bus. The injuries sustained by some victims were so severe that identification was impossible, with police indicating they were engaged in the process of reassembling remains. Donetsk regional authorities opened a preliminary war-crimes investigation.

The Russians are deliberately targeting civilians. For them, a bus full of passengers is an attractive target precisely because a single strike can kill as many people as possible. Russia deliberately flouts every conceivable rule of warfare and the norms of international humanitarian law. It selects targets where it can inflict the greatest suffering on civilians.— Vadym Filashkin, head of the Donetsk regional military administration

Filashkin immediately ordered the suspension of public transport in Kramatorsk and the neighbouring city of Sloviansk and urged all remaining residents of the Donetsk region to evacuate to safer areas of Ukraine. Footage released by police of the rescue operation showed responders loading the injured onto stretchers; drones were visible near the scene as the operation continued. According to CNN, one emergency worker could be heard asking an injured woman her name — she responded weakly, 'Tanya… legs, legs,' before being put into an emergency vehicle.

This strike will not go unanswered. Russia is trying to destroy all life in Donbas, and a response from the world is a must. A forceful response — exactly as the Russians deserve for all the deaths they have brought.— Volodymyr Zelenskyy, President of Ukraine

Zelenskyy called the target "an ordinary public transport stop" and said the death toll could "sadly rise" as medical staff worked to save those wounded. He has cautioned that Moscow is likely to intensify its daily bombardments as winter draws closer, adding strain to Ukraine's already battered infrastructure and economy.

Thursday's bus strike was the third major mass-casualty attack in as many days. On Wednesday, a Russian missile hit a five-storey residential block in Pryluky in the northern Chernihiv region, collapsing the building and killing at least 22 people, including five children aged between one and eight. Taken together, Russian attacks have killed more than 50 civilians across Ukraine in the past three days.

Kramatorsk sits roughly 20 kilometres from the active front line and has long served as a strategic rear point for Ukrainian forces in the Donetsk region. Together with Sloviansk, it forms part of what Ukrainian officials call a 'fortress belt' — the last two large cities in northern Donetsk under full Ukrainian control. Russian efforts to seize the cities stretch back more than a decade. In recent months, roads in the area have been covered with nets to protect traffic from drone attacks, but those defences offer little protection against aerial bombs.

According to a press officer with Ukraine's 93rd mechanized brigade, speaking to CNN last month, Kramatorsk can no longer serve as a rest point for exhausted troops due to frequent shelling — a sign of how far the city's situation has deteriorated. The southernmost anchor of the fortress belt, Kostyantynivka, has now been effectively lost as a stronghold, according to CNN.

While ground forces on both sides remain broadly stalemated along the front line, Russia and Ukraine have been waging an intensifying long-range aerial campaign — a situation that has persisted for more than four and a half years since Moscow launched its full-scale invasion. Combining ballistic missiles with jet-powered drones, Russia has carried out near-daily mass aerial assaults, exploiting a severe shortfall in Ukraine's supply of air-defence interceptors. Without ammunition for its US-made Patriot systems, Ukraine cannot stop Russian ballistic weapons, and it is racing to develop a new generation of interceptors capable of catching Moscow's high-flying drones.

Supplies of anti-ballistic capabilities, ammunition for our combat aircraft, and investments in interceptors — all of this is directly helping save lives every day. It is important that support in words takes concrete form in new packages for Ukraine's defense.— Volodymyr Zelenskyy, President of Ukraine

The Kramatorsk attack came as Ukrainian negotiators were expected to travel to the United States for talks on Friday and Saturday. CNN reported that US envoy Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner were scheduled to meet with Ukraine's intelligence chief Rustem Umerov and Kyrylo Budanov, head of the Office of Ukraine's President. Zelenskyy said the delegation would raise the issue of air defences and that he counted on European allies to join the talks.

Earlier on Thursday, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the war in Ukraine was at a dangerous stalemate and that Washington remained committed to finding a peaceful resolution. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Russia agreed with Rubio's assessment, adding that it was up to diplomats to find a path toward peace.

British Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband visited the site of the Pryluky apartment strike alongside Zelenskyy on Thursday. Miliband, according to The Guardian, said: "There is no clearer sign of Putin's evil, evil intent and strategy in this conflict than this week's murderous attacks." He added: "Putin once said that he was going to win on the battlefield. He is trying to win by terrorising civilians."

On Friday, Russian strikes killed two more people and wounded five others across Ukraine. One man was killed and five people wounded — including a child — in strikes on residential areas in the Zaporizhzhia region, according to regional military administration head Mykhailo Semikin. A second fatality was recorded in Ivano-Frankivsk, in western Ukraine. Russia also struck warehouse facilities in the Bucha district of the Kyiv region, wounding three people, with rescuers searching for a woman who may have been trapped under rubble, Ukraine's Interior Ministry said.

Meanwhile, Ukrainian drone strikes hit two data centres belonging to Russian technology company Yandex on consecutive days — one in Russia's Ryazan region on Thursday and one in the Kaluga region on Friday, the company confirmed, saying several modules at the Kaluga centre had been 'completely disabled.' Russia's Defence Ministry said its air defences downed 505 Ukrainian drones from late Thursday until early Friday.

Russia has not commented on the Kramatorsk bus strike. Despite extensive documentation of strikes on residential and urban areas, Moscow has consistently rejected accusations that it targets civilians.

Why it matters — The Kramatorsk attack is the deadliest single Russian strike of 2026 and part of a three-day surge killing more than 50 civilians, underscoring Ukraine's acute shortage of air defences and the direct threat to civilian life in frontline cities as winter approaches.

Sources differ on Death toll from the Kramatorsk bus strike: At least 30 (theguardian.com) vs At least 33 (cnn.com) vs 33 (updated from initial 30) (gulfnews.com)

Reported by abcnews.com, cnn.com, gulfnews.com, theguardian.com