Russian attack on Ukrainian aid centre kills 24, emergency services say

Ukraine’s emergency services agency said 24 people were killed in a Russian bombing of an aid centre in the southeastern region of Zaporizhia. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Monday, November 2, that the strikes destroyed a school being used to provide humanitarian assistance in the village of Komyshuvakha. Five other people were reported injured.

Zelenskyy described an initial air attack followed by a further bombardment of the location where people had gathered. In a Telegram post, he said the subsequent strike involved nine additional bombs that hit the shelter directly. His account placed the repeated bombing at a site used to distribute assistance to residents who had stayed in the village.

The president accused Russia of knowing about the aid distribution, saying residents received assistance at that location every week. He argued that the attack demonstrated Russia’s unwillingness to pursue de-escalation or justice. Those accusations accompanied his description of the strikes on the school and the people gathered there.

Video released by Ukrainian emergency services showed the destruction at the site, with the building reduced to heaps of rubble that were still smouldering. Rescue workers could be seen working among the remains. Regional Governor Mykhailo Semikin said on Telegram that a police officer and two rescuers from the State Emergency Service were among those killed.

Semikin also reported that 27 people in total were considered missing. Separately, Zelenskyy linked the attack to prospects for peace, referring to a humanitarian operation in Oleshky. He said there had been an opportunity after that operation for subsequent steps to demonstrate that progress towards peace was possible, but accused Russia of sending the opposite message through the killings.

In eastern Ukraine, emergency services reported that drone attacks injured 12 people in the Kharkiv region. The strikes also damaged a refrigeration facility, greenhouses and residential buildings.

Another five people were reported injured in Odesa, the Ukrainian port city on the Black Sea. A warehouse was targeted there, and homes were damaged.

Meanwhile, Russia’s Ministry of Defence said its forces had shot down 212 Ukrainian drones overnight. In Russia’s Samara region, Governor Vyacheslav Fedorishchev said local air defences had repelled an aerial attack. He provided no further details about that incident.