Russian bombing of Ukrainian aid centre kills at least 26, Kyiv says
Russian forces bombed an aid distribution centre and a neighbouring shelter in the village of Komyshuvakha, southern Ukraine, killing at least 26 people, Ukrainian officials said.
Two members of a rescue crew and four police officers were among the dead in the village of Komyshuvakha, in the Zaporizhzhia region, according to emergency services. Five people, including two rescue workers, were being treated in hospital.
Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Russian forces initially dropped bombs on a school that was used as a shelter and for distributing humanitarian assistance. There were no classes at the school, he said, as the village was too close to the frontline.
Regina Kharchenko, secretary of the Zaporizhzhia city council, said that 27 people were missing in the attack. Efforts to rescue people Monday evening were hindered as Russian drones launched additional attacks in the area that had been bombed.
Targeting of aid hub
Zelenskyy said the Russians could not have been unaware that residents remaining in Komyshuvakha gathered each week to pick up humanitarian packages from the site. The attack, he said, had shown that Moscow was intent on killing people instead of building on the past week’s ceasefire in the embattled southern city of Oleshky.
The ceasefire last week, brokered by US first lady Melania Trump, enabled an evacuation of the Russian-occupied Oleshky. It was the longest pause in fighting between the neighbours in the war, now in its fifth year.
“Russians continue to demonstrate, time and again, their hatred of Ukraine and everything that exists here,” Zelenskyy said. If Russia genuinely wanted de-escalation, there was an opportunity following the situation in Oleshky to continue taking humanitarian steps. We proposed this. But Russia continues to kill people.
The Kremlin said that no other similar missions were being planned “at the moment”.
Peace talks set to resume
US-led talks between Russia and Ukraine are set to resume next week, US special envoy Steve Witkoff said on Monday. The talks are to be held on 10 November and 11 in Abu Dhabi.
President Donald Trump has pushed for a settlement to the dragging war but there has been no breakthrough. Kyiv and its European allies worry that Trump has increasingly sided with Moscow.
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