War against Ukraine: Many dead after Russian attack on bus in eastern Ukraine

According to authorities, Russia's military killed at least 30 people on a bus in a serious attack on Kramatorsk in the eastern Ukrainian region of Donetsk.

There were also 18 injured, said Donetsk military governor Vadym Filaschkin. The information cannot be directly verified by an independent party. There had previously been talk of a dozen dead and 14 injured.

Filaschkin published photos of the burned out bus on his Telegram channel. “These are people who were killed by the Russian army,” he said. “There is no justification for this and there can be none.” Filashkin called on those remaining in the Donetsk region to flee to safer regions in Ukraine.

In view of the “drastic deterioration of the security situation,” he ordered the municipal military administrations of Kramatorsk and Slovyansk to stop public transport. The lives of passengers and drivers must not be endangered. Despite appeals to evacuate, many residents continue to refuse to leave their belongings behind.

Governor: Russians are targeting civilians

“The Russians are specifically attacking civilians. For them, a bus with passengers is an attractive target, precisely because you can kill as many people as possible with a single blow," said Filaschkin. «Russia consciously disregards all conceivable rules of warfare and the norms of international humanitarian law. It selects targets where it can cause the greatest harm to the civilian population.

Russia has been waging a destructive war of aggression on Ukraine for more than four and a half years. One of the war aims is to bring the Donetsk region completely under Moscow's control. The Ukrainian armed forces defend their cities with Western military aid.