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Key takeaways
- Officials say Russian bombs killed at least 29 people at an aid point and shelter in Komyshuvakha on 2 November.
- Zelensky links the strike to the end of the Oleshky truce, but timing alone does not establish a causal link.
- The final toll, the fate of 48 people reported missing and the exact number of bombs used remain unknown.
Russian aerial bombs killed at least 29 people at an aid distribution point and a shelter in Komyshuvakha, a front-line village in Ukraine's Zaporizhzhia region, on Monday 2 November, Ukrainian officials said. Acting regional head Mykhailo Semikin put the toll at 29 early on Tuesday 3 November, with 48 people missing, Interfax-Ukraine reported. On Monday evening President Volodymyr Zelensky and the State Emergency Service (SES) had given 26 dead, Reuters reported. The toll may still rise. Times in this report are CET. Kyiv is one hour ahead.
Reuters says Komyshuvakha lies southeast of the regional capital, Zaporizhzhia city. The village lies close to the front line. Zelensky said in his nightly address, Reuters reported, that the village school no longer held classes because the village is too close to the front. The school served as a shelter and as an aid distribution point every Monday. A photo from the National Police in Zaporizhzhia region, distributed by Reuters, showed officers carrying the bodies of victims into a van.
Two strikes on the same site
The strike took place between about 09:00 and 10:00 CET (10:00 to 11:00 in Kyiv). Bread and aid packages were being handed out, and residents of nearby villages had gathered at the site, according to Suspilne, Ukraine's public broadcaster, as cited by Militarnyi.
At 09:50 CET, acting regional head Mykhailo Semikin reported one person killed and two injured in an attack on the settlement, Kyiv Post said.
Zelensky described the sequence in his evening video address. Russian forces first dropped aerial bombs on the school, he said, "just as people were arriving". A second strike hit the shelter where people had taken cover. Most of the dead, he said, were civilians who came for aid and people who came to help after the first strike, according to UNN's account of the address. He called the attack "A vile terrorist strike."
The bomb count differs by source. AP, citing Ukrainian authorities, reported 10 guided bombs targeting an area that included a school building used to distribute humanitarian aid and a nearby shelter. Reuters reported nine. Semikin said they were FAB-3000 guided bombs, Kyiv Post reported.
Observers are reading: the toll step by step with sources and times, the named rescuers, the missing, and Kyiv's argument tied to the Oleshky truce.
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What is still unknown
The final death toll is unknown. So is the fate of the 48 people reported missing, and so is the exact number of bombs used. Koretskyi said the threat of another strike was hampering the search.
One earlier incident rests on media reports alone. Ukrinform, cited by Kyiv Post, reported that a Russian drone hit Komyshuvakha in June during an aid distribution and wounded four people. That is not an official finding.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on 2 November that no similar local ceasefires were planned for now, Reuters reported. Zelensky has said he hopes trilateral talks with the United States and Russia will take place in Abu Dhabi between 6 and 10 November, Reuters reported. Kyiv is raising the Komyshuvakha case ahead of those possible talks.
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