Kyiv, Ukraine —
A Russian attack set two public buses ablaze in eastern Ukraine on Thursday, killing at least 33 people, in what local authorities said was the deadliest single attack this year.
The attack also left 18 people injured in the Donetsk region city of Kramatorsk, prompting authorities to close public transport and urge people to move to safer parts of the country.
“The Russians are deliberately targeting civilians,” said Vadim Filashkin, head of the military administration of the Donetsk region. “For them, a bus full of passengers is an attractive target because they can kill as many people as possible in one shot.”
Ukraine’s State Emergency Service (SES) said the Russian airstrike caused fires in two buses and the surrounding area.
Police in Donetsk said a Russian drone targeted police officers who were helping victims of an airstrike. Police said in a statement that they were continuing to identify the victims of the strike, and some bodies had to be pieced together from fragments.
Footage of the rescue operation they released shows bodies strewn across the road. Drones can be seen near the scene of the attack as responders load injured people onto stretchers and emergency vehicles.
One of the paramedics can be heard asking the injured woman for her name. The woman answered weakly, “Tanya…legs, legs.” Gunshots ring out and the woman is loaded into an emergency vehicle.
Filashkin said he had ordered the suspension of public transport in the cities of Kramatorsk and Sloviask following the attack and called on civilians to move to safer areas. “We advise all those remaining in the Donetsk region to evacuate to safer areas of Ukraine,” he said.
“Russia is bringing death to the Ukrainian soil. Russia attacks our cities, kills our people and increases its crimes every day,” Filashkin added, expressing his condolences to the families and loved ones of the victims.
CNN has contacted the Russian Ministry of Defense for comment.
The deadly attack came as Ukrainian negotiators are expected to visit the United States for talks on Friday and Saturday. Sources told CNN that US special envoy Steve Witkoff and President Donald Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner will meet with Ukrainian intelligence chief Rustem Umerov and head of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy Kirillo Budanov.
President Zelenskiy said in a speech Thursday night that the talks would last two days and that Ukraine looked forward to the participation of its European allies.
He added that Umerov and Budanov will use the meeting to raise the issue of air defense, an important issue for Kiev.
Earlier, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the Ukraine war was at a dangerous stalemate and the US remained committed to finding a peaceful resolution to the conflict.
“We want a negotiated settlement to this war to be lasting, lasting and fair, and that is what we are committed to continuing to strive for,” Rubio said during a visit to Portugal.
Reacting to his comments, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Russia agreed with Rubio’s opinion that the Ukraine conflict was at a stalemate.
“Yes, we agree with him,” Russian state news agency RIA Novosti quoted Peskov as saying, adding that it was up to diplomats to find a way to move towards peace.
“The very art of diplomacy involves finding some way to make it possible to move to a peaceful trajectory,” Peskov told reporters in Turkmenistan, according to Reuters on Thursday.
The past few months have been extremely deadly for Ukrainian civilians. Russia has taken advantage of Ukraine’s severe shortage of interceptors by launching massive airstrikes against the country on an almost daily basis.
In July, Russia launched a massive missile attack on Kiev, killing 33 people across the city in a salvo. In August, a Russian drone attacked an ammunition depot near the capital, causing a massive fire that lasted several hours and multiple explosions in a residential area near Kiev, killing 38 people.
Kramatorsk and Sloviask are both important industrial cities close to the front lines. Together with nearby Kostyantynivka and Drushkivka, it forms the core of Ukraine’s remaining fortress zone in the Donetsk region.
Kramatorsk has long served as a strategic rear point for Ukrainian military units operating along the Eastern Front, and a place where exhausted troops could retreat for a few days’ rest before their next mission. However, a spokesperson for Ukraine’s 93rd Mechanized Brigade told CNN last month that that was no longer an option due to frequent shelling.
This fortified area has been slowly eroding over the past four and a half years. Kostyantinivka, the southernmost anchor, has now effectively lost its role as a stronghold.
