KRAMATORSK, Ukraine -- Dozens of people were killed in a Russian strike on the Ukrainian city of Kramatorsk on October 8, according to local authorities, a day after another deadly barrage killed at least 25 people across Ukraine.
The death toll from the Kramatorsk attack has risen to 33, with 18 others wounded, according to the latest reports from regional authorities and the prosecutor's office.
Footage taken by RFE/RL correspondent Serhiy Horbatenko, who visited the site shortly after the attack, showed two buses burned out by the strike, with bodies strewn around the scene.
"The bodies are lying right in the middle of the road," the RFE/RL correspondent said while describing the aftermath of the deadly attack.
The Donetsk Regional Prosecutor's Office said the Russian strike hit two buses that were carrying passengers at the time of the attack. It added that Russian forces likely used guided bombs to strike the vehicles.
The strike came a day after at least 25 people nationwide, including two in the capital, Kyiv, were reported killed in the October 7 barrage.
In Pryluky, about 150 kilometers east of Kyiv, rescuers searched through the rubble of a destroyed apartment building in northern Ukraine for survivors following a Russian missile attack that killed 22 people, including five children.
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy called it one of the "most vile" attacks in recent memory, and he noted they occurred on the birthday of Russian President Vladimir Putin. Russian forces "destroyed" a residential building "as a birthday 'gift' to Putin," Zelenskyy said in a post to X.
At least 10 other such buildings were damaged elsewhere, along with Ukrainian energy infrastructure, one of Moscow's other "key targets," he said.
"The fire was right in front of my eyes. There were explosions. I was screaming in my apartment. Extremely scary. I can't describe it," one woman, who gave her name as Lidia, told Current Time at the scene in Pryluky.
"So many people have died. I knew everyone here," she added, holding back tears.
With a fifth wartime winter approaching, the bombardment was part of near-daily attacks that have steadily increased in frequency and ferocity as the Kremlin struggles on the battlefield front line.
Moscow has previously sought to pressure Kyiv into accepting its hard-line demands by attacking the country's energy infrastructure and leaving thousands without heat or electricity amid freezing temperatures.
Recently, it has also stepped up attacks on Ukrainian data centers and telecommunications infrastructure, causing Internet outages in some of the country's regions.
Since this year, however, Kyiv has increasingly responded to Russian attacks with a campaign of long-range strikes targeting military and energy sites inside Russia and middle-range strikes targeting its key logistics in Ukraine's occupied eastern and southern regions.
On October 8, Russia's leading AI and technology company, Yandex, said one of its five largest data centers in the Ryazan region had been attacked, adding that the company was trying to restore affected services. The Yandex site hosts tens of thousands of servers.
Zelenskyy confirmed Kyiv had struck the facility, saying it was "mirroring" previous Russian attacks on similar sites in Ukraine.
Separately, Ukrainian forces also struck the Gazprom Neftekhim Salavat oil refinery and petrochemical complex in Bashkortostan, sparking a fire, according to Ukraine's military.
Russia's Defense Ministry reported on October 8 that the country's air defenses had intercepted and destroyed 399 Ukrainian drones overnight.
The developments came amid renewed US interest in negotiating a diplomatic settlement to the long-running war.
While US President Donald Trump has long said resolving the conflict is one of the key goals of his presidency, Kyiv and Moscow remain far apart in their negotiating positions.
Since the beginning of Russia's full-scale invasion in February 2022, the Kremlin has shown no willingness to compromise on its key demands, including full control over Ukraine's key eastern Donetsk region, which Russian forces have not yet been able to capture.
Zelenskyy said Ukraine expected fresh talks with the United States in the coming days, adding that Kyiv hoped its European partners would join the discussions.
