Ukraine says Russian bombing kills 24 at aid centre

Russian bombs struck a school used to distribute humanitarian aid in southern Ukraine on Monday, killing 24 people and leaving rescuers searching the rubble for others, Ukrainian authorities said. President Volodymyr Zelensky called the attack on the village of Komyshuvakha “utterly horrific.”

Five people were injured in the strike in the Zaporizhzhia region, and 27 were initially reported missing, regional head Mykhailo Semikin said. Ukraine’s state emergency service said the dead included two rescuers and four police officers, according to the BBC. Al Jazeera cited Semikin as saying a police officer and two rescuers were among those killed.

Zelensky said the first strike hit the school, which was being used for humanitarian purposes. Another strike then hit a shelter where people had gathered. “After the first air strike, there was a repeat strike with nine more bombs, directly on the shelter where people were gathered,” he wrote on Telegram, according to Al Jazeera. The BBC reported Semikin as saying at least nine 3,000kg aerial bombs struck the village.

Video posted by Zelensky showed a large crater and rescue teams searching through the wreckage, the BBC reported. Footage published by Ukrainian emergency services showed the building reduced to smouldering rubble, according to Al Jazeera.

Semikin called the attack a “terrible tragedy” and said people remained trapped under the debris. Rescue teams had to stop work several times because of Russian drone attacks in the area, the BBC reported him as saying. Ukraine’s initial reported death toll was 18 before the emergency service raised it to 24.

“The Russians could not have been unaware that the local residents who remained in Komyshuvakha received humanitarian aid there every week,” Zelensky wrote on social media. “This is yet another proof that Russia does not want any de-escalation.”

He linked the bombing to a recent joint Russian-Ukrainian operation to evacuate civilians from Russian-occupied Oleshky, saying that operation had offered a chance to show progress toward peace. “With such killings, Russia is sending the exact opposite signal – Russia is counting on further killings,” he said.

The Russian military has not publicly commented on the Komyshuvakha attack, the BBC reported.

Elsewhere, drone strikes injured 12 people in Ukraine’s eastern Kharkiv region and damaged a refrigeration facility, greenhouses and homes, emergency services said, according to Al Jazeera. Five people were reported injured in Odesa, where a warehouse was targeted and homes were damaged.

Russia’s Ministry of Defence said it shot down 212 Ukrainian drones overnight, Al Jazeera reported. Samara region Governor Vyacheslav Fedorishchev said local air defences had repelled an aerial attack but gave no further details.