Russian Strikes Killed 22 in Pryluky and at Least 30 on Two Buses in Kramatorsk Within Two Days
A cruise missile hit a block of flats in the north on Wednesday and a guided bomb struck two buses in the east on Thursday. Zelenskyy warns the attacks will grow as winter nears.
Friday, October 9, 2026/2 min read
Two Russian attacks in two days have killed more than fifty people in Ukraine. On Wednesday morning a cruise missile hit a residential building in Pryluky, in the northern Chernihiv region, during an overnight assault that fell on Vladimir Putin's 74th birthday, according to The Kyiv Independent. On Thursday morning a Russian guided bomb exploded beside two packed city buses in Kramatorsk, in the eastern Donetsk region.
By Thursday the count in Pryluky stood at 22 dead, five of them children. In Kramatorsk, officials first said at least 30 people had died and the emergency service later put the figure at 33. The casualty figures and the description of the weapons come from Ukrainian authorities.
What happened in Pryluky?
The Kyiv Independent reported at least 20 dead, including five children, and at least 55 wounded after the cruise missile struck. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy called the attack a "birthday gift" to Putin and warned that people might still be under the rubble. By Thursday morning the Chernihiv regional head put the toll at 22 and the wounded at 54, seven of them children, Euromaidan Press reported. More than 500 emergency workers took part, 15 people were rescued from the building, and Zelenskyy said the search had ended.
The strike was part of a wider barrage. Euromaidan Press counted about 70 missiles, many of them ballistic, plus Shahed drones, with people also killed in Kyiv, Kremenchuk and Oleksandriia. It follows the pattern we described when the aerial war intensified late last month.
What happened in Kramatorsk?
CBS News said officials counted at least 30 dead and at least 18 injured, after a guided bomb hit a street beside two packed buses. The Kyiv Independent later cited the State Emergency Service as saying at least 33 had been killed and the Donetsk governor, Vadym Filashkin, as reporting 22 more injured. At least two buses caught fire, and two of the victims had not yet been identified.
The head of the Kramatorsk military administration, Oleksandr Honcharenko, said there was "no doubt that Russia is cynically targeting civilians", and that small-drone attacks had hampered the rescue, per the Associated Press. Public transport in Kramatorsk and Sloviansk has been suspended. Zelenskyy said the strike "will not go without our response".
What have Moscow and Kyiv said since?
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Thursday that he did not see a "clear path" to a peaceful resolution of the war, according to CBS News. Zelenskyy warned that Russia will probably step up its daily missile and drone attacks as winter approaches, and said support in words must take concrete form in new packages for Ukraine's defence, per the AP.
The effects on the ground are already visible. The AP reported that Ukraine's grid operator ordered emergency power cuts in Kyiv, where Russian drones struck two districts late on Wednesday. Elsewhere, the European Commission disbursed 1.24 billion euros for drones, interceptors and missiles made by Ukrainian companies, and Turkey's president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, told Putin that Ankara is ready to help with direct talks, The Kyiv Independent reported.
What to watch next is the winter. Attacks on power and on towns near the front are about to meet falling temperatures, and the test of Zelenskyy's appeal is whether the new defence packages he is asking for arrive before the cold does.
Published in The Outspoken Digest
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