Russian strike kills 33 near Kramatorsk buses as Kyiv outages worsen

Kramatorsk military administration head Oleksandr Honcharenko said subsequent small-drone attacks hindered rescue work. He described the strike as deliberate, telling CBS News, “There is no doubt that Russia is cynically targeting civilians.”

Regional officials suspended public transport in Kramatorsk and nearby Slovyansk after the strike, citing security concerns. For residents who rely on buses, the order disrupted an everyday way to get around; Filashkin also urged people remaining in the region to evacuate to safer areas, Euronews reported.

The Kramatorsk strike interrupted public transport

The strike came a day after a Russian missile hit a residential building in Pryluky. The Associated Press reported 22 people killed there, including five children, in an account carried by PBS News.

The two attacks affected different places and services, but both brought violence into the settings civilians use to live and move through their communities. In Kramatorsk, the halt to buses followed the attack itself, adding a disruption to the threat to people traveling through the city.

The suspension was a security decision by local officials, not a routine change to service. It also placed residents’ movement under the same immediate pressures as rescue operations: officials said follow-up drone attacks made it harder for responders to work at the strike site.

Honcharenko’s assessment that civilians were being targeted is his stated view. The reported details establish a strike near two buses and the subsequent attacks that hampered rescue efforts; they do not independently establish the military intent behind the strike.

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy called for international action and additional air-defense support. In remarks reported by AP, he said, “It is important that support in words takes concrete form in new packages for Ukraine's defense.”

Kyiv’s power cuts disrupted transport and water

In Kyiv, Ukraine’s energy minister said Russian forces attacked an energy facility important to the capital. The Energy Ministry later said shelling disconnected several parts of the grid supplying the city, leaving many consumers in some districts without electricity.

The city introduced emergency power cuts on Ukrenergo’s instruction. Unlike scheduled rolling outages, the emergency cuts did not follow a timetable residents could use to plan around, DTEK said.

The effects reached beyond lighting and household power. A voltage drop temporarily halted metro trains and escalators, while water pressure and supply were disrupted in parts of the city.

Late Thursday, Kyivvodokanal said pumping equipment had restarted and water pressure was beginning to recover in several districts on the right bank of the Dnieper. The utility said restoring normal pressure throughout the network would take time.

Energy officials said restoration work was under way and urged customers who still had electricity to conserve it. Ukrenergo also announced power restrictions in several regions for Friday morning, through 11:59 a.m.

The interruptions show how a failure in one essential system can compound problems in others: a power disruption can stop metro service and affect water supply, while a transit suspension can make ordinary journeys harder. The service losses in Kyiv were reported in parts of the city; the outages were not a confirmed total loss of power across the capital.

Officials face the work of protecting civilians and restoring services

Russia and Ukraine remain engaged in a long-range aerial war, with Russian attacks hitting energy systems and other infrastructure as Ukraine prepares for winter, AP reported. In Kyiv, that means power and water restoration are part of the same civilian emergency as maintaining access to transport.

The Kramatorsk attack also put rescue work at risk, according to Honcharenko’s account of the drone attacks. Suspending buses and urging evacuation are measures local officials have taken in response to security concerns, but they also change how residents can move through the region.

For families affected by the Kramatorsk strike, the reported death toll is 33 and officials’ injury counts range from 18 to 22. In Kyiv, pumping had restarted and pressure was recovering in several right-bank districts, while energy restoration continued and emergency restrictions were scheduled in several regions on Friday.

The immediate civilian consequences are clear: people were killed near public buses, local transit was suspended, and power failures in the capital interrupted metro service and water. The next practical measure for residents is whether restoration work can return those services to normal as officials respond to attacks on transport and energy infrastructure.