The key facts

  • According to the Russian Foreign Ministry, 328 civilian buses have been attacked in Russian regions since the start of 2026
  • Over several days, according to Miroshnik, 22 civilians were harmed
  • Maria Zakharova earlier accused the Ukrainian Armed Forces of deliberately 'hunting' passenger transport

Foreign Ministry data on the number of attacks

Since the beginning of 2026, the Armed Forces of Ukraine have attacked 328 civilian buses in Russian regions. These figures were cited to RIA Novosti by Rodion Miroshnik, Ambassador-at-Large of the Russian Foreign Ministry, reports Gazeta.Ru. According to him, in the past week alone Ukrainian forces carried out a series of attacks on passenger transport in various regions.

Listed incidents

Among the incidents of the past week, Miroshnik named a strike on a bus traveling from Moscow to Novozybkov in Bryansk Oblast, damage to buses in the Telmanovsky Municipal District of the DNR, in Enerhodar in Zaporizhzhia Oblast — where, he claimed, workers were being transported to the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant — as well as in the LNR. In Starodub, Bryansk Oblast, according to the ambassador, the strike hit eight school buses, and in Rostov-on-Don the attack shattered the windows of 21 vehicles. In Pervomaisk in the LNR, Miroshnik said, Ukrainian UAVs struck a funeral service vehicle carrying a deceased person; three people were killed. In total, over just a few days, he said, 22 civilians were harmed by such strikes.

Foreign Ministry statements and context

Maria Zakharova, the official spokesperson of the Russian Foreign Ministry, earlier accused the Ukrainian Armed Forces of deliberately 'hunting' scheduled and passenger buses. According to her, the 'Nazi regime' of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is trying to intensify terror against Russia's civilian population and civilian infrastructure in order to demonstrate to Western curators the effectiveness of the supplied weapons and to justify further increases in military aid to Kyiv; Zakharova called all those helping Ukraine de facto accomplices in financing terrorism. Earlier, Colonel Khodaryonok, according to the publication, explained why the Ukrainian Armed Forces began attacking trains and buses. The figures and assessments cited come from Russian officials and are not accompanied in the publication by independent confirmation or comment from the Ukrainian side.