Russian Strike on Ukrainian Aid Site Kills 31 as Rescue Teams Search for Dozens Missing
At least 31 people were killed and more than 45 remain missing after a Russian strike hit an aid facility and shelter in Ukraine's Zaporizhzhia region, as a nationwide wave of attacks targeted power plants and hospitals.
Rescue teams in southern Ukraine pressed on with a difficult search for survivors on Tuesday at an aid facility and shelter destroyed in a Russian strike, where at least 31 people have been confirmed dead and more than 45 residents remain unaccounted for. Emergency workers and volunteers sifted through rubble at the blast site in Komyshuvakha, a village in the Zaporizhzhia region, as bodies were recovered and removed from the debris.
Mykhailo Semikin, acting head of the regional military administration, described the attack as one of the most severe losses of civilian life in the area since the full-scale war began. He said the dead included four police officers and two rescue workers, with at least five other people injured. According to officials, Russian bunker-busting bombs, some carrying close to 1.5 tons of explosives, were used in Monday's assault. Three days of mourning have been declared across the region.
The strike came as Ukraine prepares for a new round of US-brokered peace negotiations next week. Overnight, Russia launched a large-scale barrage targeting energy infrastructure across the country, a wave that President Volodymyr Zelensky said involved 289 attack drones, 17 ballistic missiles and 59 cruise missiles across nine regions. The attacks triggered emergency power cuts and coincided with the US elections, which Zelensky suggested was a deliberate signal from Moscow.
In the northeastern Kharkiv region, a combined missile and drone attack wounded at least 62 people, local authorities reported. A strike damaged a medical facility in the Nemyshlianskyi district, shattered windows in four apartment buildings and damaged vehicles. More than 200 patients were moved to other medical facilities, according to Oleh Syniehubov, head of the regional military administration.
In the Dnipro area, rescuers pulled a woman alive from the rubble on Tuesday morning following an attack that killed one person and injured 17 others, local officials said. The wave of strikes has renewed concerns about the vulnerability of Ukraine's power grid and medical infrastructure as winter approaches.
The attacks have drawn international attention to the humanitarian toll of the conflict, particularly the targeting of civilian facilities and energy infrastructure. Ukrainian officials have continued to call for strengthened air-defence support from allies, arguing that without it, such strikes will persist.
