Ukrainian authorities say a Russian strike hit a bus in Kramatorsk, in the Donetsk region, killing more than 30 people and wounding several others, according to Sky TG24. The reported death toll makes it one of the deadliest single attacks on civilians in the area in recent weeks.
President Volodymyr Zelensky said on X that doctors were still fighting to save the wounded, that 30 deaths had been confirmed so far, and that the number could rise, Sky TG24 reports. He said the bomb struck two city buses directly, that some victims could not yet be identified because of the severity of their injuries, and that a further 18 people were hurt. Residential buildings and cars were also damaged, he added.
Zelensky said the attack would not go unanswered and accused Russia of trying to destroy all life in the Donbas, calling for a strong international response. "Let all the fallen rest in peace," he wrote, according to Sky TG24.
Why it matters
The strike lands at a moment when diplomacy and fighting are moving at the same time. Zelensky has announced that Ukrainian and American negotiators will meet in the United States on Friday and Saturday, Sky TG24 reports. On the Russian side, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told the Tass news agency that Moscow and Washington have not yet agreed on a phone call between President Vladimir Putin and US President Donald Trump, and that it is unclear when such a conversation might take place.
That gap matters because Washington has been the central broker in every recent attempt to move the war toward talks. A confirmed civilian death toll above 30 gives Kyiv a fresh argument that pressure on Moscow should not ease, while the unresolved call between Putin and Trump suggests the diplomatic track is still stuck at the scheduling stage.
The attack also adds to a death toll that was already climbing. Ukrainian officials say the number killed in a Russian strike on a residential building in Pryluky, in the Chernihiv region, has risen to 22, including five children, with 54 people wounded, seven of them children, according to the State Emergency Service of Ukraine, as cited by Sky TG24. Two people died in a separate Russian attack the previous evening on a building in Kyiv's Desnyanskyi district.
European Parliament rejects Russian Duma elections
In Strasbourg, the European Parliament passed a resolution declaring that it does not recognize the legitimacy of Russia's State Duma and rejecting the September 18-20, 2026 elections as neither free nor fair. The measure passed with 482 votes in favor, 41 against and 39 abstentions, Sky TG24 reports.
The resolution accuses the Putin administration of violations during the vote and of what it describes as the systematic and deliberate destruction of what remains of democracy in Russia. It says the election took place in an atmosphere of fear while Moscow's war against Ukraine continues, and that there were no genuine alternative candidates, no free media, no credible observers and no political freedoms, with opponents jailed, killed or forced into exile.
MEPs also condemned the holding of the vote in the occupied parts of Ukraine's Donetsk, Kherson, Luhansk and Zaporizhzhia regions, in Moldova's Transnistria region, and in Georgia's Abkhazia and Tskhinvali/South Ossetia regions. The parliament said it will not treat the Duma as a legitimate representative or legislative body of the Russian Federation, and that it rejects any legal or political consequences flowing from voting organized in occupied Ukrainian territory, which it considers illegal.
The text calls on all EU countries to take the same position, asking them to avoid official contacts with the new Duma and its members and to oppose their participation in inter-parliamentary assemblies. MEPs also said they oppose any normalization of Russia's presence at international sporting and cultural events.
Spy case in London and Moscow's message to Europe
In London, prosecutors said the foreign country that a British Royal Navy serviceman charged with spying is alleged to have gathered protected material for between 2024 and 2025 is Russia. The disclosure was made at a hearing before a judge at Westminster Magistrates' Court to confirm the arrest, Sky TG24 reports.
The defendant, Able Seaman Teddy Young, 24, from Bedfordshire, had earlier been formally charged by UK counter-terrorism officers after a lengthy police investigation. He remains in custody awaiting trial. According to the BBC, the charges, whose details are currently covered by investigative confidentiality, include translating a message potentially damaging to British national security or national interests into Russian with the intention of passing it to Moscow, and searching for an online portal that could help him get the material to Russia. It is not clear whether the 24-year-old already had active contacts with intelligence services or Russian interlocutors. The charges refer to alleged breaches of the National Security Act.
Separately, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova repeated that Russia is not planning an armed conflict with Europe. She said Moscow threatens no one and that both the Russian president and foreign minister have stated repeatedly that Russia has no intention of entering an armed conflict with Western Europe, speaking during a press briefing, according to Sky TG24.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Washington is concerned that the conflict could spread to other countries, Sky TG24 reports.
What to watch next: whether the Ukrainian and American negotiators meeting in the US on Friday and Saturday produce anything concrete, and whether the Putin-Trump call that the Kremlin says is still unarranged is finally scheduled.
