Four police officers and two rescuers among 29 killed in Komyshuvakha bombing

At least 29 people were reported killed after Russian forces bombed a school being used to distribute humanitarian aid in Komyshuvakha, Zaporizhzhia Oblast, on 2 November. Those killed included four police officers, two rescue workers, Administrative Services Centre staff and local residents. Search and rescue operations remained underway, with 48 people considered missing.

The centre of the settlement was struck in two waves involving at least nine FAB-3000 guided aerial bombs. The shelter was hit during the second wave, after police and State Emergency Service personnel had arrived at the scene. According to the National Police of Ukraine, the four officers killed were helping residents reach the shelter in the underground school when the three-tonne high-explosive bombs struck.

The officers were identified as Majors Mykhailo Buzhenko and Mykola Balanda and Captains Mykhailo Romanov and Dmytro Biesiedin. Buzhenko had spent 21 years in law enforcement and was a senior district police officer in the prevention sector of police department No. 1 of the Zaporizhzhia District Police Department. Balanda, a senior detective in the criminal police sector of department No. 2, had served for 23 years.

Romanov and Biesiedin were community police officers in the same unit as Balanda. They had worked to maintain public order in settlements across the district for more than a decade. Police said three of the four officers had been displaced by the occupation of part of the oblast and had continued serving other frontline communities.

Komyshuvakha writer Kateryna Lytvyn said on social media that she had personally known two of the officers. She described their work in frontline villages from almost the beginning of the war, including evacuating wounded civilians, detaining looters and removing rubble. She also mourned the destruction of the settlement where she was born.

The State Emergency Service identified the two rescuers killed as Denys Konovalenko and Oleksii Sushchevskyi, both aged 44. Konovalenko had worked for the service for almost 12 years, while Sushchevskyi had spent more than 13 years in Zaporizhzhia fire and rescue units. Both had received the presidential For the Defence of Ukraine award, and Sushchevskyi also held the Defender of the Motherland medal. They leave behind wives and four children: sons aged 18 and 19 and daughters aged 12 and eight.

Suspilne. Zaporizhzhia reported that Administrative Services Centre employee Olha Tverdenko was also killed. She travelled to Komyshuvakha each Monday to sort and distribute bread and grocery kits to residents who remained in the settlement.

The outlet also reported the deaths of humanitarian headquarters head Tetiana Ivanivna and Nataliia Karapetian, a mother of three and the wife of Komyshuvakha community head Yurii Karapetian. A local resident speaking to regional publication ZaBor recalled the couple riding bicycles to help people and supporting their fellow villagers.