Rescuers carry a body of a person killed by a Russian airstrike on underground school of Komyshuvakha, Zaporizhzhia region, Ukraine. AP/PTI
At least 31 people were killed after Russian strikes hit a site distributing humanitarian aid in southern Ukraine, with more than 45 residents still missing as rescue teams searched through the rubble, officials said on Tuesday. Russia launched 289 attack drones, 17 ballistic missiles and 59 cruise missiles across nine regions, Zelenskyy said in an online post. In the northeastern Kharkiv region, at least 62 people were injured in a Russian missile and drone attack, local authorities said. More than 200 patients had to be moved to other medical facilities, Oleh Syniehubov, head of the regional military administration, said. In the Dnipro area, a Russian attack killed one person and injured 17, local authorities said.
AP reported.
“The scale of the tragedy is terrifying,” Mykhailo Semikin, acting head of the region’s military administration, said in an online post. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said the former school, where humanitarian aid was regularly distributed, was struck first, followed by an attack on the shelter nearby. “The Russians think America won’t notice this signal of theirs,” Zelenskyy said.
People had gathered in a queue to collect aid when the strikes hit. Emergency workers and volunteers continued searching the heavily damaged sites, where explosions had left craters. Rescuers recovered bodies from the debris, while at least five people were injured. “This is one of the worst tragedies in terms of the number of civilian victims in our region since the start of the full-scale war. The strikes in Zaporizhzhia came amid a wider wave of Russian attacks across Ukraine overnight into Tuesday, targeting power plants, damaging medical facilities and injuring scores of people. The barrage triggered emergency power cuts and coincided with the US midterm elections, he added. “But we need to notice and stop such terror. We need to help Ukraine defend its skies; otherwise, Russia will never stop its missile strikes. A medical facility in the Nemyshlianskyi district was damaged, while windows were shattered in four apartment buildings and several cars were damaged.
The attacks took place on Monday in Komyshuvakha village in the Zaporizhzhia region, targeting a former school being used to distribute humanitarian assistance and a nearby shelter. Rescuers pulled a woman alive from the rubble on Tuesday morning.
The truce was the most significant between Kyiv and Moscow since 2022. The attacks also came as Ukraine prepared for another round of US-brokered peace negotiations next week, more than four and a half years after Russia launched its full-scale invasion.
The attack damaged an outpatient clinic and a hospital, forcing patients to be transferred to other hospitals, Oleksandr Hanzha, head of the regional military administration, said. Zelenskyy said Ukraine had proposed extending the ceasefire, but Russia responded with further attacks. “We offered to Russia to extend the cease-fire in Oleshky, but this was the answer: new attacks, new strikes, new killings of our people,” he said in Berlin, where he was meeting German Chancellor Friedrich Merz.
The latest attacks came after the expiry of a six-day ceasefire in the Russian-occupied Ukrainian city of Oleshky, which had allowed residents trapped there to evacuate. You use AI every day. Now get your AI Quotient. Take the AIQ test.