Russia bombed a school building in Komyshuvakha, in Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia region, on Monday while residents sheltered beneath it and aid was being handed out. At least 33 people were killed.
Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Ukraine’s president, said Russian forces bombed the school first, then dropped a second wave of nine aerial bombs on the shelter where residents had taken refuge. He gave the toll of 33 at a press conference in Berlin on Tuesday and said more than 50 people may still be under the rubble.
Mykhailo Semikin, the acting head of the Zaporizhzhia regional military administration, said Russia began with KAB-500 guided bombs and then used FAB-3000s, which weigh three tonnes and carry about 1.5 tonnes of explosive. His count on Tuesday stood at 31 dead, five injured and nearly 50 missing.
The shelter was an underground school built with European Union money and opened in October 2025 to keep children in class under bombardment. With the front line close, it no longer held lessons, and local officials used it to hand out aid. The bombs brought down its reinforced concrete and started a fire, trapping people below.
Two rescuers, Denys Konovalenko and Oleksii Sushchevskyi, and four police officers, Mykhailo Buzhenko, Mykola Balanda, Mykhailo Romanov and Dmytro Besedin, are among the dead. Ukrainian police said a second strike hit while officers were helping residents into the shelter.
Danielle Bell, who heads the UN human rights monitoring mission in Ukraine, said the time and place of the aid handout had been “well publicized” and that the attack appears to violate international humanitarian law. Matthias Schmale, the UN humanitarian coordinator for Ukraine, condemned the killing of civilians gathered for aid and of the rescuers who came to help them.
Russia’s defence ministry claimed it hit Ukrainian military units around Komyshuvakha and two other settlements and killed up to 25 servicemen. It has given no evidence, and the dead named so far are rescuers and police officers who went to help people queuing for aid.
Overnight, Russia launched 289 attack drones, 17 ballistic missiles and 59 cruise missiles at Ukraine, hitting energy sites, Zelenskyy said. He called it “very telling” that the attacks came on the day of the US congressional elections. Zaporizhzhia has declared three days of mourning, from 3 to 5 November.
