Russian Glide Bomb Strikes Civilian Buses in Kramatorsk Killing at Least 30; Russian Yandex Data Center Hit by Drone for First Time

According to France 24, Russian forces on October 8 struck two passenger buses in the city of Kramatorsk, Donetsk Oblast, eastern Ukraine. The Donetsk Oblast prosecutor's office said that day that the attack had killed at least 30 people and injured 18. Ukraine's National Police said glide bombs were used. The governor's office confirmed the same casualty toll and announced the suspension of local public transport.

The attack occurred in Kramatorsk, not far from the front line. The city has served as a logistics and supply hub for the Ukrainian military throughout the war, forming part of the so-called "fortress belt," with Russian forces attempting to seize its eastern edge. Authorities had previously called on civilians still in the area to relocate to safer regions within Ukraine.

The Kramatorsk City Council said in a statement: "This is yet another horrific crime committed by Russian forces against civilians," and added that "Russia has once again struck a place with absolutely no military targets." France 24, citing Agence France-Presse, also reported that the mayor of Kyiv said a separate Russian attack that day killed three people in the capital.

The bus attack came one day after Russian forces on October 7 struck a residential building in Chernihiv Oblast in northern Ukraine with a missile—an attack that killed 22 people, including five children. Targeting civilian sites in frontline logistics cities on two consecutive days highlights a policy of accumulated indifference to mounting civilian casualties.

On the same day, the scope of cross-border strikes extended for the first time to civilian technology infrastructure on Russian soil. According to Agence France-Presse, a drone struck a data center of Russian technology company Yandex in Sasovo, Ryazan Oblast, triggering a major fire. A Yandex spokesperson told AFP: "A drone strike caused a fire at the Yandex data center in Sasovo, affecting some infrastructure," adding that "there were no casualties; emergency responders have arrived at the scene; the data center has been fully shut down and some Yandex services may be unavailable," but did not specify the source of the drone. Unverified images from the scene circulating on social media showed dense black smoke rising from the building's roof.

Yandex is Russia's largest technology company, operating the most popular search engine in the Russian-speaking world as well as food delivery and ride-hailing apps. Downdetector Russia, which monitors internet outages, reported a sharp spike in user complaints from the early hours of Thursday. Ryazan Oblast Governor Pavel Malkov said on Telegram that day that two Ukrainian drones had been shot down over the oblast overnight and noted that "the roof of a commercial building" in the Sasovo area had caught fire.

Claims about the source of the drone have so far come only from unofficial Ukrainian channels—Andriy Kovalenko, who describes himself as the former head of the counter-disinformation center, posted on Telegram claiming: "Both sides can play this game. The Ukrainian Armed Forces struck the Yandex data center in Ryazan Oblast." The claim has not been officially confirmed by Ukrainian authorities, and images from the scene have not been independently verified.

Also on October 8, the Ukrainian military issued a statement saying it had struck the Gazprom Neftekhim Salavat oil refining and petrochemical complex in the Republic of Bashkortostan in central Russia, triggering a fire. France 24 noted that both Russia and Ukraine have significantly intensified long-range strikes on each other's territory in recent months, with recent Russian attacks having targeted Ukrainian data centers and logistics warehouses; the latest strike extends this pattern for the first time to Russian civilian infrastructure.