Russian attack on Ukraine’s Kramatorsk kills at least 12 people

A Russian attack on a bus has killed at least 12 people and wounded 14 others in eastern Ukraine’s city of Kramatorsk, near the front line, authorities said.

“According to preliminary data, 12 people are known to have been killed as of now. Additionally, 14 people are believed to have sustained injuries,” the local prosecutor’s office said.

“The final toll of the enemy attack is being determined,” it added, posting photos of bodies and debris strewn across a road in front of the burning metal shell of a bus.

The regional governor, Vadym Filashkin, confirmed the attack and shared images of what appeared to ‌be a destroyed bus.

Kramatorsk is one of the key cities that Russia has not yet captured in Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region, which Moscow claims as part of Russia.

It has been a logistics and supply hub for the Ukrainian military for much of Moscow’s war and is part of the so-called “fortress belt” that 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.

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.

Elsewhere in Ukraine, the death toll from Wednesday’s Russian missile attack on a residential building in the city of Pryluky in the northern Chernihiv region rose to 22, including five children, Governor Vyacheslav Chaus said in a statement on Telegram.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that a cruise missile directly hit the building in Pryluky, some 150km (93 miles) east of the capital, Kyiv.

Attack on Russian data centre

Meanwhile, in Russia, a drone caused a fire at a data centre belonging to Russian technology company Yandex, the firm told the AFP news agency on Thursday.

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, 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.

The former head of Ukraine’s Centre for Countering Disinformation said Kyiv was responsible for the strike, writing on Telegram: “Two can play at this game”.

Yandex is Russia’s largest technology company.

Often dubbed “Russia’s Google”, the firm runs the country’s most popular search engine, as well as a food-ordering and taxi application used by tens of millions of people across the Russian-speaking world.