Russian Bombing of Ukrainian Aid Centre Kills at Least 29, Kyiv Says
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Russian forces on Monday bombed a school used as an aid distribution centre and shelter in the village of Komyshuvakha in Ukraine’s southeastern Zaporizhzhia region, killing at least 26 people, and regional officials put the death toll at 29 on Tuesday as rescue operations continued.
Regional head Mykhailo Semikin said at least nine three-tonne aerial bombs struck the village, and that 10 people were injured and 48 remained unaccounted for. Ukraine’s state emergencies service earlier confirmed 24 dead, including two members of a rescue crew and four police officers. Five people were treated in hospital, among them two rescuers. Regina Kharchenko, secretary of the Zaporizhzhia city council, said 27 people were reported missing.
President Volodymyr Zelensky, in his nightly video address, said Russian aircraft first dropped bombs on the school just as residents were arriving, then struck a second time on the place where people were sheltering. “The Russians struck first just as people were arriving – a few aerial bombs,” he said. “Then there was a second strike – more air bombs, this time on the shelter. A vile terrorist strike.”
Mr Zelensky said there were no classes at the school, because the village, southeast of the regional capital, lies too close to the front line in the four-and-a-half-year war. He said the Russians could not have been unaware that the residents remaining in Komyshuvakha gathered there each week to collect humanitarian packages.
Rescue efforts were hindered as Russian drones launched further attacks in the area, the emergency services said. The Russian military did not comment publicly.
Mr Zelensky said the attack showed Moscow was intent on killing rather than building on the previous week’s joint humanitarian evacuation of civilians from the southern city of Oleshky, carried out during a temporary ceasefire brokered by US First Lady Melania Trump. “With such killings, Russia is sending the exact opposite signal – Russia is counting on further killings,” he said.