Death toll from strike on Komyshuvakha rises to 24

Strike on a village where humanitarian aid was being distributed

The death toll from Russian air strikes on the village of Komyshuvakha in Zaporizhzhia region has risen to 24 people, with five more wounded, Ukraine's foreign ministry reported. According to the ministry, Russian forces repeatedly struck a school where local residents regularly gathered to receive humanitarian aid, and after the first strike dropped nine more aerial bombs on the shelter where people were hiding. 'Russia knew that civilians had gathered there to receive humanitarian aid. Nevertheless, it attacked both the building and the shelter,' the ministry said in a statement published on X. Russia has not yet commented on the Ukrainian claims.

Data from authorities and rescuers

According to the State Emergency Service of Ukraine (DSNS), the dead include two rescuers and four police officers. The governor of Zaporizhzhia region, Ivan Fedorov, said that 'at least nine KAB-3000 aerial bombs' were dropped on the village over the course of the day, and that emergency services are working at the scene while municipal crews clear the rubble. Photographs published by the DSNS show a building reduced to a pile of debris and, apparently, a burned-out bus. President Volodymyr Zelensky called the attack 'utterly monstrous' and said that after the first strike came a second strike with nine bombs that deliberately hit the shelter. He said rescue work and the search for survivors are continuing.

Context: the truce and the evacuation from Oleshky

Zelensky linked the attack to collapsed hopes for progress toward peace: in his words, after the humanitarian operation in Oleshky there was a moment when further steps could have shown that progress was possible. Residents evacuated from the occupied Oleshky in Kherson region arrived in Ukraine on Saturday, having traveled through Belarus, under a rare humanitarian truce between Kyiv and Moscow. In Zelensky's assessment, the attack on Zaporizhzhia showed that Russia is 'sending a completely opposite signal' and 'is counting on new killings'; he called for a 'strong and tough response' from the world. Meanwhile, authorities in Kherson region reported that on Monday Russia resumed strikes on the region: a drone attack on the Korabelnyi district reportedly left a 62-year-old woman and a 73-year-old man with shrapnel wounds.