A Russian air strike has destroyed the central administrative building of the city of Kramatorsk in Donetsk region. The head of the military city administration of Kramatorsk, Oleksandr Hontcharenko, stated this on Facebook on Saturday, 31 October.
“An hour ago, Russia destroyed the central building of Ukrainian statehood in Kramatorsk in an air strike. The Square of the World, the building of the executive committee,” Hontcharenko wrote, according to Ukrinform. The Kyiv Independent locates the building of the city council’s executive committee on Peace Square in the centre of Kramatorsk.
Hontcharenko stressed that the building had survived the temporary Russian occupation of the city in 2014 and the subsequent liberation by Ukrainian forces. “Here was history, the spirit of mechanical engineering, the revolution, the life of the city and its plans. The foundation of Ukrainian Kramatorsk,” Ukrinform quoted the administration head as saying. “They can destroy a building, scorch our land and steal our memories. But they cannot destroy our right to a future.”
According to the Kyiv Independent, the building had already been damaged in March 2026 in a Russian air strike on the city centre. Information on casualties from that strike was not initially available.
In Russian strikes elsewhere in Kramatorsk, civilians were also injured on 31 October, according to Suspilne, which the Kyiv Independent cites. Ukrinform reports, citing Hontcharenko, that Russian forces attacked Kramatorsk and Sloviansk on 31 October, injuring six people.
The Kyiv Independent describes Kramatorsk as one of the largest Ukrainian-controlled cities in Donetsk region, which is increasingly often a target of Russian attacks as Moscow’s troops continue their offensive in eastern Ukraine.
