Donetsk regional head Vadym Filashkin said the strike hit two city buses that were both carrying passengers, causing a fire. “For them (the Russians), a bus with passengers is an attractive target precisely because one strike can kill as many people as possible,” Filashkin wrote on Telegram. Images posted by police showed bodies strewn across a debris-littered street and the charred shell of a bus.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky described the location as a bus stop and issued condolences to families. The Kramatorsk City Council said the strike targeted “a location where there are absolutely no military targets.” Russia has not commented on the attack and denies intentionally targeting civilians, though it has regularly struck residential and civilian infrastructure during its full-scale invasion that began in February 2022.
The attack is part of a sharp increase in Russian strikes across Ukraine. According to the UN, more civilians had been killed by August 2026 than in all of 2025. In a separate strike early Wednesday, a missile destroyed a five-storey block of flats in Pryluky, east of Kyiv, killing 22 people including five children. With the security situation deteriorating in Kramatorsk and neighbouring Slovyansk, Filashkin ordered all public transport halted and renewed calls for civilians to evacuate to safer regions. An earlier report from Al Jazeera put the Kramatorsk death toll at 12 but noted the final toll was being determined as rescue efforts continued.