---
title: "Two Buses Burn in Kramatorsk, and at Least 30 Civilians Die With Them"
description: "A mid-morning Russian strike on public transport near the Donetsk front brought the year’s heaviest single-strike toll"
author: "Jan Sokol"
published: 2026-10-08T11:36:19.400Z
modified: 2026-10-08T15:46:37Z
url: https://rews.cc/a/in-kramatorsk-a-russian-strike-finds-two-city-buses-and-kill-4397ae
language: en
tags: ["war", "ukraine", "russia", "civilians", "transport", "europe", "world"]
publisher: "Rews (https://rews.cc)"
---

# Two Buses Burn in Kramatorsk, and at Least 30 Civilians Die With Them

*A mid-morning Russian strike on public transport near the Donetsk front brought the year’s heaviest single-strike toll*

By Jan Sokol · October 8, 2026 · https://rews.cc/a/in-kramatorsk-a-russian-strike-finds-two-city-buses-and-kill-4397ae

## In brief

- A Russian strike hit two public buses in Kramatorsk, Donetsk region, at around 10 am local time on Thursday
- Authorities reported at least 30 dead and 18 wounded; CNN put the toll at 33, the year’s highest from a single strike
- Public transport was suspended in Kramatorsk and Sloviansk; governor Filashkin urged evacuation and said civilians were targeted
- Zelenskyy vowed the strike ‘will not go unanswered’ and demanded a forceful response from the world
- A Kyiv store strike left two dead and two injured; Ukraine said it downed 126 of 142 Russian drones overnight

The buses were running their ordinary routes when the strike came, around ten in the morning on Thursday, by the account of the Donetsk Regional Prosecutor’s Office. Kramatorsk, an industrial city in eastern Ukraine’s Donetsk region, close to the front line, has lived for years within earshot of the guns. On this morning the guns came to the bus stop. [Al Jazeera, reporting from AFP and Reuters](https://aljazeera.com/news/2026/10/8/russia-attack-in-ukraines-kramatorsk-kills-12), put the toll at no fewer than 30 dead and 18 wounded.

[CNN’s count was higher still](https://cnn.com/2026/10/08/europe/deadly-bus-strike-russia-ukraine-intl): at least 33 killed, 18 injured — which would make it the deadliest single strike of this year, exceeding even the coordinated July missile barrage on Kyiv that killed 33 across the whole capital. Ukraine’s State Emergency Service said the strike set fire to both buses and the area around them, and that rescue workers fought the blaze and pulled out survivors. The prosecutor’s office posted photographs from the road: bodies and debris scattered before the burned metal shell of a bus.

“Once again, the Russians have struck a location where there is definitely no military target. A public bus. Civilian transport. People who were simply going about their business,” the Kramatorsk City Council wrote on Telegram. Vadym Filashkin, head of the Donetsk regional military administration, was plainer still: “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.” He ordered public transport suspended in Kramatorsk and neighboring Sloviansk and told those who remain: “I urge everyone who remains in the Donetsk region to evacuate to safer regions of Ukraine.” And: “Russia is bringing death to Ukrainian soil. It is striking our cities, killing our people, and multiplying its crimes every day.”

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy answered on X, [as Euronews reported](https://euronews.com/2026/10/08/at-least-12-killed-and-19-injured-after-russian-strike-hits-buses-in-donetsk), vowing the 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,” he wrote.

Kramatorsk and Sloviansk, with Kostiantynivka and Druzhkivka, form the core of what remains of Ukraine’s “fortress belt” in Donetsk — cities that have sheltered the rear of the eastern front, where exhausted units once came for a few days of rest. A press officer of the 93rd mechanized brigade told CNN last month that the shelling has ended even that; Kostiantynivka, the belt’s southern anchor, has now been effectively lost as a stronghold. The rear is becoming the front. It is the passengers on a city bus who learn this first.

The same Thursday brought death to the capital too. Kyiv’s mayor, Vitali Klitschko, said two bodies were found after a drone strike on a store in the Solomianskyi district, with two more people injured and rescue work continuing; earlier he had reported one dead and 11 wounded in Russian attacks on the city. Ukraine’s air force said Russia launched 142 drones overnight — Shahed and Gerber types among them — and that by 9:30 in the morning air defenses had shot down or neutralized 126, though strikes were recorded at seven locations.

## Sources

- [Russian attack on buses in Ukraine's Kramatorsk kills at least 30](https://aljazeera.com/news/2026/10/8/russia-attack-in-ukraines-kramatorsk-kills-12) — aljazeera.com
- [Russian strike kills at least 33 in eastern Ukraine in deadliest single attack this year](https://cnn.com/2026/10/08/europe/deadly-bus-strike-russia-ukraine-intl) — cnn.com
- [At least 30 killed and 18 injured after Russian strike hits two buses in Donetsk](https://euronews.com/2026/10/08/at-least-12-killed-and-19-injured-after-russian-strike-hits-buses-in-donetsk) — euronews.com