KYIV, Ukraine (AP) – A Russian guided bomb exploded next to public buses filled with passengers in eastern Ukraine, authorities said Thursday, killing 30 people as part of a wave of attacks that also worsened power outages in the capital.
The morning attack occurred next to a bus stop in the war-torn city of Kramatorsk in Ukraine´s Donetsk region, prompting public transport to be suspended in the area.
“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.
Russia and Ukraine are locked in a long-range aerial war while their armies remain largely deadlocked on the front line, more than 4 1/2 years since Moscow´s full-scale invasion. Russia has escalated its aerial attack in recent weeks, putting pressure on Ukraine as it prepares for winter and hitting the infrastructure keeping its war-battered economy afloat. Recent targets have included energy systems, key industries, railways, post offices, shopping centers, telecom networks, gas stations and grain exports.
Thursday’s attack followed a Russian missile strike a day earlier that killed 22, including five children, in the northern Ukrainian town of Pryluky. Rescuers were searching the rubble of a residential building. At least 54 people were wounded. Several survivors slept in heavily damaged apartments because they couldn’t find anywhere else to stay.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy traveled to Pryluky on Thursday with visiting British Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband, who announced new sanctions on Russia.
Zelenskyy 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.”
Ukraine’s energy company DTEK said national grid operator Ukrenergo had ordered emergency power outages in Kyiv. Regular, rolling outages that occur on a schedule across the country will be halted during these shutdowns.
Officials are urging families to prepare emergency kits, store drinking water and maintain backup power sources, as Moscow keeps up the intensity of its attacks.
Kyiv police said bomb disposal specialists defused two unexploded ballistic missile warheads, each weighing about half a ton, after they landed near residential buildings. Late Wednesday, Russian drones struck Kyiv´s Obolonskyi and Desnianskyi districts, killing four people and injuring 12, including four children, police said.
Russian technology giant Yandex said one of its data centers in the western Ryazan region was damaged in a Ukrainian drone attack, taking the site offline.
Also Thursday, Ukraine said its forces struck a large oil refinery complex in the city of Salavat, some 1,200 kilometers (about 750 miles) east of Moscow. Ukraine’s General Staff described the complex as one of Russia´s largest oil refining and petrochemical facilities. The claim could not be independently verified.
Ukrainian drones also reached Russia´s Omsk region in western Siberia, more than 2,000 kilometers (1,242 miles) from the border with Ukraine. Omsk regional Gov. Vitaly Khotsenko said most of the drones were shot down by air defenses, but one “reached a northern industrial hub.” He didn´t elaborate. Russian independent news outlet Astra reported that the Omsk oil refinery was on fire after the attack. There was no official confirmation of the report.
Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan said his government presented proposals to both Russia and Ukraine aimed at protecting civilian shipping in the Black Sea, while warning that commercial trade and grain exports could be disrupted by escalating military offensives.
Separately, Lithuania deployed about 100 additional soldiers to help secure the NATO member’s border with the Russian enclave of Kaliningrad, the Baltic country’s defense minister, Robertas Kaunas, said. Sandwiched between Lithuania and Poland, Kaliningrad is separated from mainland Russia and remains a major security concern for NATO´s eastern flank.