Russian strikes kill at least 33 at Ukraine aid center, Zelenskyy says
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on 3 November that more than 50 people could remain trapped under rubble after the attack on a school in Komyshuvakha.
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President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on 3 November that more than 50 people could remain trapped under rubble after the attack on a school in Komyshuvakha.
Russian strikes killed at least 33 people at a school used as an aid distribution center in southeastern Ukraine, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on 3 November. More than 50 people could be trapped under the rubble, he said.
The attack on 2 November destroyed the school in Komyshuvakha, in the Zaporizhzhia region, Zelenskyy said. His updated toll followed the 26 deaths he announced on 2 November and the 29 reported by regional authorities on 3 November.
Mykhailo Semikin, a regional official, said at least nine aerial bombs weighing 3,000 kilograms each hit Komyshuvakha.
Ukrainian officials said Russian forces first struck residents waiting for aid, then hit the same place again after waiting for rescue workers to arrive, killing several responders and destroying emergency vehicles, DW said. Zelenskyy said the second strike involved 9 more bombs aimed directly at a shelter where people had gathered.
Ivan Fedorov, head of the Zaporizhzhia regional military administration, accused Russia of striking people who had come to receive humanitarian aid.
Mykhailo Semikin, acting head of the regional military administration, said the dead included four police officers and two rescue workers. At least 5 people were injured, and 2 additional rescue workers were being treated in hospital.
Footage posted by Ukrainian emergency services showed a building reduced to smoldering rubble and rescuers working at the site, Al Jazeera reported.
Regional police said officers and rescue teams were trying to reach residents believed trapped under rubble. Semikin said further Russian drone attacks in the area hindered rescue efforts on the evening of 2 November.
Zelenskyy said Russian forces could not have been unaware that residents collected humanitarian packages at the site every week. Russia’s Defense Ministry said its attack targeted Ukrainian military units around Komyshuvakha and two other settlements; Russia generally denies targeting Ukrainian civilians.
Kyivvodokanal said Russian attacks had cut power to its main water facilities on 3 November. The whole metro network was also suspended, while the water supplier and electricity workers worked to restore service.
The Russian ministry claimed that up to 25 Ukrainian servicemen were killed and 15 vehicles and an electronic warfare station destroyed in the attacks around the three settlements.
The attack came a day after a six-day pause in fighting around Russian-occupied Oleshky ended. The pause allowed initial mine clearance and aid deliveries to residents facing severe shortages of food and medicine. Zelenskyy said the operation had offered a chance for progress toward peace, but called the Komyshuvakha killings the opposite signal.
Russia’s human rights commissioner, Yana Lantratova, said she and her Ukrainian counterpart, Dmytro Lubinets, had agreed to seek aid missions to Oleshky at least monthly. The Kremlin said no similar missions were being planned at the moment.
Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine on 24 February 2022.
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