Russian glide bomb shreds a Kramatorsk bus stop, killing at least a dozen

A Russian glide bomb hit a bus stop in Kramatorsk on Thursday morning, and the images are the ones this war keeps producing: bodies strewn across a debris littered street, the charred shell of a bus, a city that was supposed to be behind the front line.

The strike came around 10 AM on a street where two city buses were operating, in the eastern Donetsk city that anchors Ukraine's "fortress belt," the chain of defensive cities Moscow has been demanding Kyiv surrender. President Volodymyr Zelenskiy described the target as a bus stop. Police photographs showed bodies across the street and the burned out frame of one of the buses. Regional governor Vadym Filashkin said a bus full of passengers was "an attractive target" for Russia precisely because one strike could kill as many people as possible. "These are not the consequences of war, nor dry statistics," he said. "These are people killed by the Russian army." Moscow had no immediate comment. Russia denies targeting civilians, a denial the wreckage in Kramatorsk makes difficult to sustain.

The casualty count was still moving as the day developed, and the numbers demand honesty about sourcing. Reuters, citing police, reported at least 12 killed and 14 wounded. The Times of London, citing local authorities, reported at least 33 dead and 18 wounded, which would make it one of the largest single attacks of the year. The gap between the two counts is the fog that settles over every strike in this war in the first hours, and the truth usually lands between the early and the late number.

Kramatorsk's governor ordered public transport suspended in Kramatorsk and in Sloviansk, the neighboring fortress city, saying authorities had "no right to risk" citizens' lives. Glide bombs, Soviet era munitions fitted with satellite guided wing kits and dropped from aircraft beyond the reach of air defenses, have become Russia's weapon of choice against these cities. In late August, as many as nine were fired at Kramatorsk in a single day.

Thursday's strike came a day after a massive Russian air attack across Ukraine that primarily targeted the power grid and killed dozens, and hours after morning drone strikes on Kyiv killed three people and wounded 14, according to Mayor Vitali Klitschko. The pattern is no longer escalation in spikes. It is a sustained campaign against the cities Russia cannot take and the civilians it has decided to punish for that.