A Russian guided bomb strike on two passenger buses in the eastern Ukrainian city of Kramatorsk killed at least 33 people and injured 18 others on Thursday, Ukrainian authorities said.

The strike occurred at around 10 a.m. local time on a street in Kramatorsk, a key Ukrainian-held city in Donetsk Oblast, as two municipal buses carrying passengers were operating along the route. Ukrainian authorities said the attack also damaged a residential building and triggered fires in the buses and an open area.

Ukraine's State Emergency Service (DSNS) later raised the death toll to 33 from an earlier figure of 30, while the number of wounded remained at 18. Rescue workers extinguished the fires and assisted the injured at the scene.

Donetsk Regional Governor Vadym Filashkin accused Russian forces of deliberately targeting civilians.

“Russia comes to Ukrainian land with death. It hits our cities, kills our people and multiplies its crimes every day,”

Filashkin said, adding that a passenger bus was an especially vulnerable target because a single strike could cause mass casualties.

President Volodymyr Zelensky said some of the injured remained in critical condition and warned that the death toll could rise further. He said two of the dead had not yet been identified because of the severity of their injuries.

“This strike will not go without our response. Russia is trying to destroy all life in Donbas, and the world needs to react to this,” Zelensky said.

Ukrainian authorities said the weapon was believed to be a UMPB D-30 SN guided aerial bomb. Earlier reports described the attack more generally as a glide-bomb strike.

Following the attack, authorities ordered the suspension of all public transportation in Kramatorsk and neighboring Sloviansk, citing the deteriorating security situation and the risk of further attacks.

Kramatorsk Mayor Oleksandr Honcharenko said the buses were at a stop when the bomb struck. He said there was no information indicating that children were among those killed or wounded, with preliminary reports suggesting that all the victims were adults.

The attack came amid an intensification of Russian aerial strikes across Ukraine. Ukraine's Air Force said Russia launched 142 Shahed-type drones overnight, including 82 jet-powered drones, with Ukrainian air defenses reporting that 126 were shot down or suppressed.

The wider Donetsk region also came under repeated Russian attacks. Filashkin said four people had been killed and six wounded in other attacks across the region before the Kramatorsk strike. He said Russian forces had shelled settlements 31 times over the previous 24 hours, while 256 people, including 32 children, were evacuated from frontline areas.

The Kramatorsk attack also followed a deadly Russian strike on a passenger bus in the same city on Oct. 2, when an FPV drone hit a bus while it was operating on its regular route, injuring two passengers, according to the Kramatorsk City Council.

Kramatorsk, one of the largest Ukrainian-controlled cities in Donetsk Oblast, lies close to the front line and has increasingly come under Russian drone and guided-bomb attacks. The city, along with Sloviansk, forms part of Ukraine's defensive belt in the region.

Russia has not publicly commented on the latest Kramatorsk strike. Moscow has repeatedly denied deliberately targeting civilians, despite frequent Russian attacks on Ukrainian cities and civilian infrastructure since the start of its full-scale invasion in February 2022. (ILKHA)