Russian strike on buses in Kramatorsk, eastern Ukraine, kills at least 12; toll later put at 30

Right · 1A Russian bomb attack on Kramatorsk, in the eastern Ukrainian region of Donetsk, killed at least 12 people on the morning of Thursday 8 October, authorities said in the first reports carried by Reuters. 1 Centre · 1Later reporting by France 24 said the toll had risen to 30 dead and 18 wounded, citing the Donetsk regional prosecutor's office; the governor's office gave the same figures and said public transport had been suspended. 2 Right · 1The Reuters report said 14 people were wounded and that police described a street where two city buses were operating, while President Volodymyr Zelenskiy called the site a bus stop. 1

Centre · 1Ukraine's national police said the buses were hit with a glide bomb, and the strike happened at about 10:00 local time (0700 GMT). 2 Right · 1Police images showed bodies strewn across a street littered with debris and the charred shell of what appeared to be a bus. 1 Mixed · 2Regional governor Vadym Filashkin said the dead were "people killed by the Russian army", and Kramatorsk City Council called the attack "yet another horrific crime" and said there were "absolutely no military targets" at the location. 1 2

Mixed · 2Kramatorsk is part of Ukraine's so-called "fortress belt" of defences in Donetsk and has long been a logistics and supply hub for the Ukrainian military; local officials say Russian forces have stepped up drone and guided-bomb strikes on it, and Russian troops have edged close to its eastern edge, prompting calls for remaining civilians to relocate. 1 2 Mixed · 2The strike followed a large Russian air attack on Wednesday that Reuters said killed dozens and mainly targeted the power grid; France 24 reported that a Russian missile hit an apartment block in Chernigiv, killing 22 including five children, and that three more people died in a strike on Kyiv, according to its mayor. 1 2 Right · 1Russia has demanded that Ukraine cede the rest of Donetsk still under Kyiv's control before it stops fighting, which Kyiv refuses to do. 1

Centre · 1Separately on Thursday, a drone started a fire at a Yandex data centre in Sasovo, in Russia's Ryazan region; the company said there were no casualties but the facility stopped operating entirely. Andriy Kovalenko, former head of Ukraine's Centre for Countering Disinformation, said Ukrainian forces carried out the strike, while Yandex did not say where the drone came from and the Ryazan governor said two Ukrainian drones had been shot down overnight. 2 Centre · 1Ukraine's military also said it struck the Gazprom Neftekhim Salavat refinery and petrochemicals complex in Bashkortostan, sparking a fire. 2