Rescue officials told the BBC that 33 people have been killed in a Russian glide bomb attack on two civilian buses in the frontline city of Kramatorsk [E1]. Ukraine's national police told Asharq Al-Awsat that Russia had hit the buses with a glide bomb [E10].
Asharq Al-Awsat said Thursday's strike happened at 10:00 a.m. (07:00 GMT) [E11].
Local authorities told Asharq Al-Awsat that 30 people were killed [E8]. The governor's office gave the same toll [E9]. Rescue officials and Donetsk regional authorities disagree on the death toll.
Another 18 people were wounded, said Vadym Filashkin, the Donetsk regional head, the BBC reported [E2].
He accused Russia of targeting a bus carrying passengers to kill as many civilians as possible, the BBC reported [E2].
Moscow is yet to comment on the latest attack, the BBC reported [E5].
However, rescue officials said the attack caused a fire [E5].
Images posted by local prosecutors showed the burning metal shell of the bus along with debris and some of the victims on the road, the BBC reported [E3].
A Kyiv Independent headline described a Russian glide bomb striking a Kramatorsk bus stop [E12].
Kramatorsk and neighbouring Slovyansk are part of a so-called fortress belt that Russia is trying to seize as part of Vladimir Putin's claim to the entire Ukrainian industrial region of Donbas, the BBC reported [E4].
Filashkin appealed to anyone who was still in the Donetsk region to move to safer regions of Ukraine, the BBC reported [E6].
Given the sharp deterioration of security in the two neighbouring cities, he said all public transport had been ordered to stop [E6][E7]. Asharq Al-Awsat said the governor's office had suspended public transport [E9].
The safety of civilians was paramount, and "we have no right to risk the lives of passengers and drivers", he told the BBC [E7].
Thursday's strike came a day after a Russian missile hit an apartment block in the northern region of Chernigiv, killing 22, including five children, Asharq Al-Awsat reported [E11].
Since this paper's 4 October file on a drone hitting Kyiv's Northern Bridge, the new fact is a glide bomb on passenger buses in a Donetsk city Russia has not taken.
The desk's reading. The glide bomb was aimed at civilian circulation in a Donetsk city Russia has not taken, not a miss on a military site. Rescue officials and national police put a glide bomb on passenger buses that were carrying people; the buses burned and prosecutors showed a metal shell and victims on the road; Filashkin accused Russia of targeting a passenger bus to kill as many civilians as possible. The competing reading is that Kramatorsk sits in a fortress belt Russia is trying to seize, where a glide bomb can land off a nearby military aimpoint, and that Moscow has not named a target.
The next test. Moscow's first statement on this strike by 12:00 UTC on 10 October. If that statement names a military object at the site, the miss reading stands. If it names none, the circulation reading holds.