Russian Bombs Kill 26 at a Ukraine Aid Centre in Komyshuvakha

Updated 23:06 UTC

The death toll from the Russian bombing of the aid centre and shelter in Komyshuvakha rose to 26, Ukraine emergency services said, the Associated Press reported. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in his nightly address that 26 people were now known to have died, the BBC reported. The count had stood at 24 in the emergency service earlier detailed tally, which included two rescue workers and four police officers among the dead. Five people were injured.

About 20 people were still considered missing as night fell and the toll could rise, the Associated Press reported, with responders searching the rubble by flashlight and rescue work hindered by Russian drones over the village. A day of mourning was declared across the Zaporizhzhia region for Tuesday, the BBC reported. Russia military had not publicly commented on the strike.

Russian aerial bombs struck a school used to hand out humanitarian aid in the village of Komyshuvakha in southern Ukraine on Monday, killing 24 people, Ukraine's State Emergency Service said. A second strike hit the shelter where residents had gathered beside the aid centre.

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy first put the death toll at 18 in a post on X. The emergency service later raised it to 24, and the BBC reported that two rescue workers and four police officers were among the dead. Five people were injured.

Ten guided bombs on one village

Zelenskyy said 10 guided bombs targeted the area around the school and the shelter. Mykhailo Semikin, the regional head, said at least nine of the bombs weighed 3,000 kilograms each. Semikin first reported 27 people missing. As night fell, officials told the Associated Press that about 20 people were still unaccounted for and that the toll could rise. Responders searched the rubble of collapsed buildings by flashlight. Semikin said the rescue work had to stop several times because Russian drones were active over the village, and people were still under the rubble.

Zelenskyy calls the attack horrific

Zelenskyy called the attack "utterly horrific" and posted video showing a large crater and rescue teams picking through debris. Residents who stayed in Komyshuvakha, a settlement of about 5,000 people southeast of the city of Zaporizhzhia, received aid at the school every week, he said. "Russia is counting on more killings," Zelenskyy wrote. Russia's military had not publicly commented on the strikes by Monday evening.

The strikes came as a local ceasefire expired

The bombing happened on the day a limited ceasefire expired in the Kherson region, farther south. The pause began on Oct. 27 and covered a humanitarian aid and evacuation mission in the Russian-occupied city of Oleshky. The Associated Press called it the most significant truce between Kyiv and Moscow since Russia launched its full-scale invasion in February 2022. Dmytro Lubinets, Ukraine's ombudsman and lead civilian negotiator for the mission, told reporters in Kyiv on Monday that he hoped the Oleshky operation would act as a model for other missions. Ukraine's general staff said Russia used the pause to strengthen its drone defenses and restock ammunition.

Komyshuvakha was not the only place hit on Monday. Ukrainian authorities said Russian drone attacks injured at least 17 people in other parts of the country, 12 of them in the eastern Kharkiv region and five in the Black Sea port city of Odesa, where a warehouse and homes were damaged.

In Komyshuvakha, the search for the missing continued into the night.