A Russian attack on two buses killed at least 30 people and wounded 18 others in the eastern Ukrainian city of Kramatorsk, near the front line, authorities said. The local prosecutor’s office on Thursday released photos of bodies and debris strewn across a road in front of the burning metal shell of a bus. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy described it as a bus stop and said there would be a response. “This attack will not go unanswered. Russia is trying to destroy all life in Donbass, and the world must respond… firmly,” he said on Telegram. The governor of Donetsk accused Russia of “deliberately attacking civilians.” [the Russians]”A bus with passengers is an attractive target precisely because an attack can kill as many people as possible,” Vadym Filashkin wrote on Telegram. Police said the buses were hit by a glide bomb. Al Jazeera’s Audrey MacAlpine said glide bombs “don’t have the precision of a ballistic missile or the first-person view of something like a drone, so they don’t have the same precision as those weapons.” Therefore, there is no way to know if these buses were attacked intentionally or if they were “in the wrong place at the wrong time,” MacAlpine said. The correspondent added that this was one of the largest and deadliest airstrikes in recent months, “in a sign of how the city of Kramatorsk, on the front line, is becoming increasingly dangerous cities that Russia has not yet captured in the eastern Donetsk region of Ukraine, which Moscow claims as part of Russia. and is part of the so-called “belt of fortresses” that troops are fighting to hold. “Once again, the Russians have attacked a place where there are absolutely no military targets,” he added. Elsewhere in Ukraine, the death toll from Wednesday’s Russian missile attack on a residential building in the town of Pryluky, in the northern Chernihiv region, rose to 22, including five children, Governor Vyacheslav Chaus said in a statement on Telegram President Zelenskyy said. that a cruise missile directly hit the building in Pryluky, about 150 kilometers (93 miles) east of the capital, kyiv. The city’s mayor, Vitali Klitschko, said two people were found dead on Thursday after a fire in a four-story building that was hit by a drone in the densely populated Solomyansky district Klitschko has said that the attacks, which affected key transport bridges in the city, as well as the network. railway and power grid, were “destroying kyiv.” Airstrike, amid Russia’s attack on Ukraine, in the city of Kramatorsk, Donetsk region, Ukraine, October 8, 2026. [Press service of the National Police of Ukraine/Handout via Reuters]Russian data center attack Meanwhile, in Russia, a drone caused a fire at a data center belonging to Russian technology company Yandex, the company told the AFP news agency on Thursday. Unverified images posted on social media showed plumes of thick black smoke billowing from the roof of the building, which the company said was in the central Ryazan region, southeast of Moscow. Russia and Ukraine have stepped up long-range attacks on each other in recent months, with some of the latest Russian attacks targeting Ukrainian data and logistics centers. warehouses. The former director of Ukraine’s Center for Countering Disinformation said kyiv was responsible for the attack on the Yandex facilities, writing on Telegram: “Two can play this game.” The company is the largest technology company in Russia. Often called “Russia’s Google,” Yandex runs the country’s most popular search engine, as well as a food-ordering and ride-hailing app used by tens of millions of people across the Russian-speaking world. Ukraine also claimed to have attacked a large oil refinery complex in the city of Salavat, about 1,200 kilometers (about 750 miles) east of Moscow. Ukraine’s General Staff described the complex as one of Russia’s largest oil refining and petrochemical facilities. Separately, a man was killed and a woman was injured in a drone strike in the Moscow region, said Andrei Vorobyov, regional governor. A residential building and three cars were damaged in the attack. In Russia’s Omsk region, Vitaly Khotsenko, the region’s governor, said kyiv had attacked an industrial area. The Omsk region, which is in Siberia, is home to an oil refinery operated by Gazpromneft. Ukraine has been waging its own campaign of long-distance drone strikes against military, energy and commercial targets in an attempt to increase the cost for Moscow of continuing the war. On Thursday he said Russia’s war in Ukraine was in a dangerous stalemate and that Washington would continue working toward a deal to end the conflict. “We would love to see a negotiated settlement for this war that is permanent, lasting and fair. And that is what we are committed to continuing to do,” Rubio told reporters during a visit to Portugal. The US official said the escalations could spark a broader conflict. “That escalation could end up being a campaign of sabotage in neighboring countries that are members of NATO,” he said, adding that other things “could quickly turn what is a war between two countries into a much broader and much more dangerous regional conflict.” “This war must end in a negotiated agreement.” “I can’t move forward,” Rubio added.
