At least 30 people were killed and 18 others wounded on Thursday when Russia struck two passenger buses in Kramatorsk near the front line in eastern Ukraine, authorities said. "As of now, the death toll from this morning's attack on buses has risen to 30. Eighteen people were wounded," the Donetsk regional prosecutor's office said.
The governor's office gave the same toll and said public transport had been suspended. Read moreRussia launches one of its biggest strikes on Ukraine, killing at least 21 civilians Ukraine's national police said Russia had hit the buses with a glide bomb. Kramatorsk is one of the key cities that Russia has not yet captured in the eastern Donetsk region, which Moscow claims as its own.
It has been a logistics and supply hub for the Ukrainian military for much of the war and is part of the so-called "fortress belt" which troops are fighting to keep hold of. Russian forces have edged close to the city's eastern edge, which has prompted calls for civilians who remain to relocate to safer regions of Ukraine. Thursday's strike, which happened at 10:00am (0700 GMT), came a day after a Russian missile hit an apartment block in the northern region of Chernigiv, killing 22, including five children.
Kramatorsk City Council said it was "yet another horrific crime committed by the Russian army against the civilian population". "Once again, the Russians have struck a location where there are absolutely no military targets," it added. Another three people were killed in a Russian strike on Kyiv, according to the city's mayor.
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Also on Thursday, a drone caused a fire at a data centre belonging to Russian technology company Yandex, the company told AFP, in the first such strike of its kind on Russia. Unverified images published on social media showed columns of thick, black smoke pouring from the roof of the building, which the company said was in the central Ryazan region, located southeast of Moscow. Both Russia and Ukraine have intensified long-range strikes on each other in recent months, with recent Russian attacks targeting Ukrainian data centres and logistics warehouses.
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