Russian bombs kill at least 26 at Ukraine aid center, Kyiv says

Russian aerial bombs struck the village of Komyshuvakha, in Ukraine's Zaporizhzhia region, on Monday, Nov. 2, hitting a school building that was being used to hand out humanitarian aid and then a shelter where people had taken cover, Ukrainian officials said. Ukraine's State Emergency Service (known by its Ukrainian initials, DSNS) first reported at least 24 people killed and five injured. In his evening address, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said the death toll had risen to 26, according to the Ukrainian outlet UNN, and later reports from The Guardian and the Kyiv Independent put the toll at at least 26, citing Zelenskyy and the emergency service. The count rose several times during the day, and officials said people could still be trapped under the rubble.

The attack came less than a day after a rare six-day local truce around the Russian-occupied town of Oleshky, in the neighboring Kherson region, expired on Sunday night. As of the evening of Nov. 2, the Russian government had not publicly commented on the Komyshuvakha strike in the reports reviewed by NewsCubby. The toll and the account of how the attack unfolded come from Ukrainian officials and have not been independently verified.

What happened in Komyshuvakha?

Komyshuvakha is a village southeast of the city of Zaporizhzhia and close to the front line; outlets put it at roughly 15 to 20 kilometers from the fighting. According to Zelenskyy, the school building no longer holds classes because the settlement is "very close to the front." Instead, the building and its shelter were used for humanitarian work, and aid was handed out to the residents who stayed behind every Monday.

Zelenskyy said the first strike came just as people had arrived to collect aid, with several aerial bombs hitting the school. A second attack followed on the shelter where people had gathered. "After the first air strike, there was a repeat strike with nine more bombs," he wrote on Telegram, as quoted by Al Jazeera. He also said the attackers "could not have been unaware" that aid was distributed at the site every week.

Mykhailo Semikin, who heads the Zaporizhzhia regional military administration, said Russian forces used at least nine FAB-3000 guided aerial bombs, according to the Ukrainian outlet Liga.net. Each of those bombs weighs about three tonnes and carries roughly 1,400 kilograms of explosives, the outlet reported. The Kyiv Independent, citing the emergency service, said a gymnasium, an outbuilding and a fire truck were destroyed and the school building was damaged. Emergency services footage cited by Al Jazeera showed a building reduced to smoldering rubble with rescuers working at the site.

How many people were killed, and how many are missing?

The number of dead rose as the day went on. Early reports, including a statement from Semikin on Telegram, cited 18 people killed, among them a police officer and two emergency rescuers, with 27 others considered missing. By the evening, DSNS had put the toll at 24 and said four police officers and two rescue workers were among the dead. Zelenskyy later raised the figure to 26. The Guardian, the BBC and the Kyiv Independent later reported at least 26 dead, citing Zelenskyy and the emergency service. Five people were taken to hospital, including two rescue workers, according to DSNS.

The Kyiv Independent named the two rescuers killed as Denys Konovalenko and Oleksii Sushchevskyi, both 44. Konovalenko had served in civil protection for nearly 12 years, and Sushchevskyi had worked in fire and rescue since 2013. The report said both leave wives and, between them, four children.

According to DSNS, as relayed by the Kyiv Independent, rescuers and police arrived after the first strike but took shelter when a threat of another strike emerged, and further strikes then hit the same site. Zelenskyy said most of the victims were civilians who came for aid, along with people who came to help after the first strike. Semikin said additional Russian drone attacks in the area complicated the rescue operation.

Regional officials said 27 people were considered missing. Zelenskyy said there could be more people under the rubble. "Rescue operations will continue for as long as necessary to find every person," he said, according to UNN's account of his address. The Zaporizhzhia regional administration declared Tuesday, Nov. 3, a day of mourning, according to the Ukrainian outlet Censor.NET.

How did Zelenskyy and Moscow respond?

Zelenskyy called the attack "utterly horrific" in a post on X and said it showed Russia was not interested in easing the war. "This is yet further proof that Russia does not want any kind of de-escalation, any real justice," he wrote on Telegram, according to Al Jazeera. He tied the strike directly to the Oleshky operation, saying it had offered a chance for progress toward peace. "With these killings, Russia is sending an entirely opposite signal: Russia is counting on more killings," he said. In his evening address he added that Ukraine had proposed continuing humanitarian steps after Oleshky, but that Russia "continues the killings," as UNN reported.

Russia has repeatedly denied deliberately targeting civilians in Ukraine, Al Jazeera noted in its coverage. The outlets reviewed by NewsCubby did not carry a Russian account of the Komyshuvakha strike. Russia's Defence Ministry did say that day that it shot down 212 Ukrainian drones overnight, and the governor of Russia's Samara region, Vyacheslav Fedorishchev, reported that air defenses repelled an aerial attack there.

What stands out about Monday's attack is its scale, the reported repeat strike on a shelter, and the toll among the emergency workers who responded. For now, the account rests on Ukrainian statements, emergency service reports and video released by the authorities, and it has not been independently verified.

What was the Oleshky truce?

The strike followed the end of a limited ceasefire that had drawn unusual attention. The truce around Oleshky, a Russian-occupied town across the Dnipro River from the city of Kherson, took effect on Oct. 27, when Russian forces halted fire at 4 a.m. local time and Ukraine's General Staff agreed to observe the pause from the same hour. It was announced on Oct. 23 and was brokered by U.S. first lady Melania Trump, with the involvement of Pope Leo XIV, according to Al Jazeera. It expired at 10:59 p.m. Ukrainian time on Sunday, Nov. 1. Neither side reported violations, but there was no extension. A Ukrainian official told AFP that Russia had reportedly refused a Kyiv proposal to extend it.

The purpose was humanitarian: aid deliveries, road demining and safe passage out for civilians. The United Nations said up to 2,000 people remained in Oleshky, down from about 24,000 before the war, and that they could not leave because of mines and drone attacks. UN humanitarian coordinator Matthias Schmale had said civilians were trapped in the town "without a guaranteed safe exit route." Melania Trump said the truce allowed the evacuation of "nearly 800 people," though neither Kyiv nor Moscow had released official figures. Ukraine's military separately reported evacuating 167 more people from threatened areas of southern Kherson on Sunday, including 22 children and 21 people with limited mobility. NewsCubby has reported on the long journey that some Oleshky evacuees made to reach Ukraine through Russia and Belarus: Oleshky evacuees reach Ukraine after a journey through Russia and Belarus.

The two sides disagreed about what the pause was used for. Ukraine's General Staff accused Russia of using it to rotate troops and resupply ammunition, while Ukraine's ombudsman, Dmytro Lubinets, said the equipment seen in the area was used for supervised demining, according to the Kyiv Independent. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov had said Moscow viewed the operation positively, including coordination between the two countries' human rights commissioners.

Fighting resumed in Kherson on Monday. According to Euronews, a drone hit a car in the city's Korabelny district at about 8 a.m. local time, wounding a 62-year-old woman and a 73-year-old man, and Russian attacks killed one person in Izium, in the Kharkiv region. Kyiv described the truce as the longest pause in fighting between the two countries since the full-scale invasion began. Both countries also reported that their air-raid alert apps had been hit by cyberattacks around the time the truce ended: Ukraine said fake nuclear alerts appeared on Sunday, and on Monday Russia's emergencies ministry said hackers posted "false information" on its warning app.

What else happened Monday, and what comes next?

Komyshuvakha was not the only target on Monday. Al Jazeera reported that drone strikes injured 12 people in Kharkiv and damaged a refrigeration facility, greenhouses and residential buildings, and that five people were injured in Odesa when a warehouse was hit and homes were damaged. In the overnight attack reported on Nov. 1, Ukraine's Air Force said Russia had launched 433 drones, 371 of which were shot down or suppressed, and Russian attacks cut power to hundreds of thousands of households. A drone strike in the city of Vinnytsia killed three people, including a 13-year-old girl. Ukraine's Air Force spokesman Yurii Ihnat said Russia launched more than 4,000 jet-powered drones and 4,740 propeller-driven drones during October, according to the Kyiv Independent.

The human toll has been enormous. Ukraine's acting prosecutor, Anton Kovalskyi, said in late October that more than 19,000 Ukrainian civilians had been killed in the war, including 762 children, according to Khaleej Times.

Diplomacy is also under pressure. Zelenskyy has said negotiators from Ukraine, Russia and the United States agreed to hold technical-level talks in the first half of November, with Abu Dhabi the expected venue and Switzerland mentioned as another possibility by a U.S. official. "The plan is to meet in the first half of November, and as early as possible, of course," he said, as quoted by Khaleej Times. Monday's strike came less than 24 hours after the Oleshky truce expired, and no extension was announced. The Kremlin has rejected calls for a wider ceasefire and says it will press on with its offensive in eastern Ukraine, Euronews reported.

Military support is moving on a separate track. On Oct. 30, the U.S. State Department approved a possible $2.1 billion sale of 500 PAC-3 MSE Patriot interceptors to Ukraine, though Zelenskyy warned deliveries could take years (U.S. clears $2.1 billion sale of 500 Patriot interceptors to Ukraine). Diplomatic efforts among major powers have also stalled: G20 foreign ministers ended their Atlanta meeting without consensus on Ukraine (G20 ministers end Atlanta talks without consensus on Ukraine).

In the coming days, the main questions are whether rescuers find more victims in Komyshuvakha, whether the toll is finalized at 26 or rises, whether Russia responds to the accusations, and whether the planned talks go ahead on schedule. Ukrainian officials have said rescue work will continue as long as needed. Zaporizhzhia region is observing a day of mourning on Tuesday, Nov. 3.

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*ARCHIVE PHOTO: The official portrait of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, dated Aug. 26, 2019. Photo: Office of the President of Ukraine / Wikimedia Commons / CC BY 4.0.*

*NewsCubby articles are produced with AI assistance and reviewed by humans.*