Death toll from Russian strike on Ukraine aid centre rises to 40 as dozens remain missing
Ukrainian officials say 40 people have now been confirmed killed in the bombing of an aid distribution point in Komyshuvakha, with 59 people missing and more than 30 feared still under the rubble.
The death toll from a Russian bombing of an aid distribution point in south-eastern Ukraine has risen to 40, officials said on Wednesday, with dozens of people still missing three days after the attack.
The strike hit the village of Komyshuvakha in the Zaporizhzhia region on Monday, 2 November. An underground school building that was being used to hand out humanitarian aid was struck as local residents arrived to collect supplies.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Russian forces first dropped aerial bombs on the building as people gathered for aid, and then struck the shelter again, hitting the rescue workers and police officers who had rushed to the scene.
Two members of a rescue crew and four police officers were among those confirmed dead, according to emergency services. Ivan Fedorov, co-head of the Zaporizhzhia Regional Defense Council, said 59 people were missing, while Zelenskyy warned that more than 30 people may still be trapped beneath the rubble.
Footage from the scene on Wednesday showed men in military fatigues loading bodies in white plastic bags into the back of a van in the village, which was struck multiple times during the attack.
The World Central Kitchen charity, which delivers food and water to the community, said the facility that was hit served as a humanitarian and administrative centre for local residents.
Russia's defence ministry offered a sharply different account, saying the attack targeted Ukrainian military units around Komyshuvakha and two other settlements and that up to 25 Ukrainian servicemen were killed. That claim could not be independently verified, and Ukrainian officials described the site as a civilian aid point.
The attack came a day after a brief United States-brokered local ceasefire expired. That six-day pause had been intended to allow civilians to be evacuated from the Russian-occupied southern town of Oleshky.
It also came less than a week before the United States is due to bring Ukrainian and Russian delegations together in Abu Dhabi for talks on ending a war now in its fifth year, a timetable that has made the strike a grim backdrop to diplomacy.
Rescue teams were still searching the wreckage on Wednesday, and officials warned that the confirmed toll could rise further as more bodies are recovered and identified. The strike has already been described as one of the deadliest attacks on civilians this year, and it is likely to sharpen international pressure over the protection of humanitarian sites.
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