Kramatorsk: airstrike destroys city council building that survived 2014

“The central building of Ukrainian statehood”

Late on Saturday, 31 October, the Russian army destroyed the city executive committee building on Peace Square in Kramatorsk with an airstrike, said Oleksandr Honcharenko, head of the Kramatorsk city military administration.

“An hour ago, Russia destroyed the central building of Ukrainian statehood in Kramatorsk with an airstrike. Peace Square, the executive committee,” he wrote. People may have different views of officials, Honcharenko said, “but this is our freedom and identity”.

The building survived the city’s occupation by Russian-backed militants in 2014, the fighting and Kramatorsk’s liberation by Ukrainian forces, Ukrainska Pravda and The Kyiv Independent recalled. According to The Kyiv Independent, it had already been damaged in a Russian airstrike on the city centre in March 2026.

“There was history here, the spirit of machine-building, revolutions, the life of the city and its plans. The foundation of Ukrainian Kramatorsk. They can destroy a building, scorch our land and steal our memories. But they cannot destroy our right to a future,” the head of the administration wrote. He gave no information on casualties from this strike.

Sloviansk and Kramatorsk during the day

The strike on the council building capped a hard day for the area. According to the Donetsk regional prosecutor’s office, at 11:30 the Russian army dropped a FAB-250 glide bomb with a UMPK kit on a residential area of Sloviansk, injuring a 72-year-old pensioner. At 13:40 an FPV drone hit a road in Kramatorsk just as a civilian car was passing: four men aged 41 to 72 and a 43-year-old woman were injured. Fifteen homes and a car were damaged. The Sloviansk and Kramatorsk district prosecutors opened investigations under Article 438 of the Criminal Code — violation of the laws and customs of war.

The day before, according to Donetsk regional governor Vadym Filashkin, two people were killed in Sloviansk and 16 more residents of the region were wounded. In one day 519 people, including 44 children, were evacuated from the front line. In total, Russian forces have killed 4,449 people in the region and wounded 10,935 since the invasion began, excluding Mariupol and Volnovakha.

The front is close

The DeepState analytical project reported overnight into 1 November that Russian troops had advanced near Mykolaivka in Donetsk region.

Zaporizhzhia and Sumy regions

The south also remains under heavy fire. Ivan Fedorov, co-chair of the Zaporizhzhia regional defence council, reported 699 strikes in a day: 20 airstrikes, 486 drone attacks (mostly FPV), 13 rocket artillery attacks and 180 artillery strikes. Six people were wounded, and 68 reports of damage to homes, cars and infrastructure were received.

In Sumy region, police recorded 56 strikes on 20 settlements in a day. In the Shostka community a 43-year-old woman was killed by drone attacks and more than ten others were injured. In the Sumy community a drone hit a house and injured a 49-year-old woman; in the Krasnopillia community a 53-year-old woman was wounded. Criminal proceedings for war crimes have been opened in all cases.

What next

In Kramatorsk, rescuers and utility workers are assessing the damage. Sloviansk and Kramatorsk are the largest Ukrainian-held cities in Donetsk region and are systematically attacked with glide bombs and drones. Evacuations from the region’s frontline communities continue every day.