Russia bombed a school used for the weekly distribution of humanitarian aid in the village of Komyshuvakha, in Ukraine's Zaporizhzhia region, on Monday, and the death toll has reached 26, according to President Volodymyr Zelensky. Another 27 people were still missing under the rubble, and five of the injured were taken to hospital.
The head of the Zaporizhzhia regional administration, Mykhailo Semikin, said the attack used at least nine FAB-3000 guided aerial bombs, weighing around 3,000kg each. He declared a day of mourning across the region on Tuesday.
Two blasts at the same spot
The first bomb hit the school while residents were collecting supplies. A second blast then struck the shelter where people had taken cover and which rescue crews had already entered — the "double tap" pattern Zelensky described in his account of the attack.
Ukraine's State Emergency Service (DSNS) confirmed 24 deaths, among them two of its own rescuers, Denys Konovalenko and Oleksii Sushchevskyi, both 44, and four police officers. Two more rescuers were taken to hospital. The school's sports hall and a fire and rescue vehicle were destroyed, according to the service's leadership.
The search moved slowly. Police reported drone activity, shelling and thick smoke inside the collapsed building, and Prime Minister Serhii Koretskyi said the risk of a repeat strike on the same spot had delayed the work. In his view there is no doubt Russia knew residents collected aid there every week. The Russian military has not publicly commented on the attack.
Days before a new round of talks
The bombing comes shortly before peace talks between Ukraine, Russia and the United States resume in Abu Dhabi, suspended since February. US envoy Steve Witkoff said the delegations will meet next week; Zelensky named 10 November as a possible date. US negotiators are also due to meet European and NATO officials in Brussels this week.
For Zelensky, the attack is an "absolutely opposite" signal to de-escalation — he called the episode "utterly horrific" and urged the world to respond. "Behind every number are human fates," Semikin said.
Komyshuvakha had already been targeted during an aid distribution: in June, a drone strike on the village wounded four people. Monday's bombing came a day after the end of a US-brokered local ceasefire in the occupied town of Oleshky, in the Kherson region.
With information from the Kyiv Post and the BBC.
