At least 30 killed as Russian guided bomb hits civilian bus in Ukraine
A Russian guided bomb exploded beside passenger-filled public buses in the eastern Ukrainian city of Krematorsk, killing 30 people and wounding at least 18 more, authorities said Thursday.
The strike hit next to a bus stop during the morning in Krematorsk, which lies in Ukraine’s Donetsk region, and public transport in the area was suspended as a result.
“There is no doubt that Russia is cynically targeting civilians,” Oleksandr Honcharenko, head of the city’s military administration, said, adding that the rescue effort had been hampered by subsequent Russian attacks using small drones.
The bombing came amid an intensive pre-winter wave of attacks across Ukraine, with power cuts deepening in the capital, Kyiv.
A day earlier, deadly missile strikes hit the northern Ukrainian town of Pryluky, where the death toll has now risen to 22, including five children.
At least 54 people were wounded in that attack, and rescuers were still searching the rubble of a residential building struck by a Russian missile.
Some survivors had to sleep in heavily damaged apartments because they couldn’t find anywhere else to sleep. Rescue dogs continued a nearby search for residents who have not yet been accounted for from , while heavy debris was removed from the cratered section of the building.
UK foreign secretary Ed Miliband condemned the Pryluky attack during a visit to Ukraine on Thursday, and branded Russian President Vladimir Putin’s strategy “evil”.
“When we come to the site of this appalling atrocity, the killing of civilians, 22 civilians, five children, babies, there can be no clearer sign of Putin’s evil intent and evil strategy in this conflict,” he said.
“Because I heard from the governor that the vast, vast majority of people killed in this region, affected in this region, are civilians, the buildings targeted are civilian.
“And we know what international law says about this, that when you target civilians, it is war crimes, and that is the evidence that I see here.”
Mr Miliband also announced new sanctions on Russia targeting oil companies, shadow fleet tankers and military supply chains during his trip.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky warned that Russia will likely escalate daily missile and drone attacks as winter approaches. He appealed for additional defense support from NATO countries.
“It is important that support in words takes concrete form in new packages for Ukraine’s defense,” he wrote in an online post. “Supplies of anti-ballistic capabilities, ammunition for our combat aircraft and investments in interceptors — all of this is directly helping save lives every day.”
