Kyiv: At least 40 people have been killed and 59 remain missing after a Russian bombing struck a humanitarian aid distribution centre in Ukraine’s southeastern Zaporizhzhia region, officials said. The attack is among the deadliest strikes on civilians this year.
The bombing took place on Monday in the village of Komyshuvakha, where an underground school building served as a shelter and humanitarian aid distribution point. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Russian forces dropped aerial bombs on the facility as residents arrived to collect aid before striking it again.
Rescue operations continued on Wednesday, with emergency workers using excavators to search through the rubble and recover bodies near a massive blast crater. Reuters footage showed personnel loading bodies wrapped in white plastic bags into a van.
Ivan Fedorov, co-head of the Zaporizhzhia Regional Defense Council, said 59 people remained missing. Two rescue workers and four police officers were among those killed, emergency services said.
The school had stopped holding classes because of its proximity to the frontline. Komyshuvakha is around 17 km from the nearest Russian positions but continued to function as a shelter and distribute humanitarian aid every Monday.
World Central Kitchen (WCK), which provides food and water to the community, described the facility as a humanitarian and administrative centre. Its Ukraine response director, Yuliya Stefanyuk, said, “This strike hit a place where a community was organizing help for its own residents.”
Russia’s Defence Ministry claimed its forces had targeted Ukrainian military units in and around Komyshuvakha and two other settlements, killing up to 25 Ukrainian servicemen. Both countries deny deliberately targeting civilians.
Ukrainian police also released bodycam footage from an officer killed in the attack, showing damaged buildings, civilians rushing towards an underground shelter and warnings about incoming Russian glide bombs. Police said one strike involved a three-tonne FAB glide bomb.
The attack followed the expiry of a six-day ceasefire brokered by US First Lady Melania Trump to evacuate civilians from Oleshky. Nearly 800 people were evacuated under the truce.
The strike came ahead of planned US-mediated talks between Ukrainian and Russian delegations in Abu Dhabi on November 10 and 11. US envoy Steve Witkoff said discussions would focus on ending the war, postwar security arrangements and de-escalation.
