At least 33 people have lost their lives and around twenty have been injured after a new attack by the Russian Army against the Ukrainian city of Kramatorsk, in the Donetsk region, most of them after the impact hit two urban buses directly.
The State Emergency Service of Ukraine has specified that there are 30 fatalities caused by a guided bomb model D-30 SN UMPB launched by Russia, which fell on two buses around 10:00 local time. Another three people have died as a result of another bombing in the town of Bilenke, also belonging to the municipality of Kramatorsk.
"These are not 'consequences of war' nor cold statistics. They are people murdered by the Russian Army. Russia comes to Ukrainian territory with death. It attacks our cities, kills our people, and multiplies its crimes every day," expressed the governor of Donetsk, Vadim Filashkin, on his social media.
"There is no and can be no justification for this," added Filashkin, who announced the suspension of public transport both in Kramatorsk and Sloviansk for security reasons. He has denounced, "A bus with passengers is an attractive target" for Russian forces.
The governor has also accused Moscow of systematically violating international norms. "Russia deliberately ignores all imaginable rules of war and the norms of International Humanitarian Law. It chooses targets where it can cause the greatest harm to the civilian population," he emphasized.
Reaction from Zelenski and warning to Russia
On social media, the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenski, has also spoken out about what happened, praising the work of the medical staff trying to save the injured and warning that the death toll "could increase" in the coming hours.
"The Russian bomb practically hit two urban buses. Some deceased have not yet been able to be identified due to the severity of the injuries. My condolences to all the relatives and loved ones," Zelenski has stated, who has warned that "this attack will not go unanswered."
The leader has insisted that Moscow's objective is to devastate the eastern region of the country. "Russia is trying to destroy all life in Donbas, and the world must react to this. It must react harshly, just as the Russians deserve for all the deaths they have caused. Eternal memory to the deceased," he has stated.
Zelensky had already mentioned this attack along with other Russian bombings recorded throughout the day, including one against the capital, Kyiv, which has so far left four dead and a dozen injured.
Request for more air defenses and context on the front
At the same time, the Ukrainian president has once again taken advantage of this episode, as he usually does after each large-scale Russian offensive, to demand that his allies move from statements to actions and accelerate the supply of weapons and anti-aircraft defense systems to confront these Russian "crimes."
Currently, Russia maintains control of just over 70% of the Donetsk province, although it has not yet managed to take the cities of Kramatorsk and Sloviansk, strategic and logistical key enclaves that constitute the last major bastion of the Ukrainian Army in the area and block the advance of Moscow's troops towards Kharkiv and Dnipro.
The attack occurs while Ukraine is in national mourning for the thirty deceased that the wave of bombings launched this Wednesday by the Russian Army against Kyiv and twelve other regions of the country, including Chernihiv, the hardest hit, where 22 dead have been counted.