Russian bombs hit aid centre in Ukraine's Zaporizhzhia region, killing at least 24
At least 24 people were killed on Monday, 2 November, when Russian aerial bombs struck a school used as a humanitarian aid distribution point in the village of Komyshuvakha, in Ukraine's southern Zaporizhzhia region. Ukraine's emergency service says the dead include two rescuers and four police officers. Five people were injured and people are still believed to be under the rubble. President Volodymyr Zelensky called the attack "utterly horrific".
A Russian bombing raid on a humanitarian aid point in southern Ukraine killed at least 24 people on Monday, 2 November, Ukrainian authorities said, in one of the deadliest single attacks on civilians in recent weeks.
The strike hit the village of Komyshuvakha in the Zaporizhzhia region. According to the head of the regional military administration, Mykhailo Semikin, at least nine 3,000kg aerial bombs were dropped on the village. Five people were injured and 27 had initially been reported missing.
President Volodymyr Zelensky said the first bomb hit the local school, which was being used for humanitarian needs, and that a second strike then hit the place where people had taken shelter. He first put the death toll at 18. Ukraine's State Emergency Service (DSNS) later raised it to 24 and said two rescuers and four police officers were among the dead.
"The Russians could not have been unaware that the local residents who remained in Komyshuvakha received humanitarian aid there every week," Zelensky wrote on social media, calling the attack "utterly horrific" and "yet another proof that Russia does not want any de-escalation". He posted a video showing a huge crater and rescue teams searching the rubble.
Semikin described the attack as a "terrible tragedy" for the village and said people were still trapped under the rubble. Rescue teams had to stop work several times because of Russian drones flying over the area, he said. A day of mourning has been declared for Tuesday across the whole Zaporizhzhia region.
Zelensky also linked the strike to recent diplomacy. He said that after a joint Russian-Ukrainian operation to evacuate civilians from the Russian-occupied city of Oleshky, carried out during a temporary ceasefire brokered by US First Lady Melania Trump, "there was a moment when the next steps could show that peace is possible". "With such killings, Russia is sending the exact opposite signal," he said. The Russian military has not publicly commented on the attack.