A Russian bomb attack on an aid centre in Ukraine has killed 24 people, according to Ukraine’s emergency services agency.
The strikes destroyed a school being used as a humanitarian centre in the village of Komyshuvakha, in Ukraine’s southeastern Zaporizhia region, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Monday. Five other people were reported injured.
“After the first air strike, there was a repeat strike with nine more bombs, directly on the shelter where people were gathered,” Zelenskyy wrote on Telegram.
He said Russian forces could not have been unaware that residents remaining in Komyshuvakha received humanitarian assistance there every week. “This is yet further proof that Russia does not want any kind of de-escalation, any real justice,” he said.
Footage released by Ukrainian emergency services showed the building reduced to smouldering rubble, with rescuers searching through the wreckage.
Among the dead were a police officer and two State Emergency Service rescuers, regional Governor Mykhailo Semikin said. He added that 27 people were considered missing.
Zelenskyy said the attack came after a humanitarian operation in Oleshky had created a moment when progress towards peace seemed possible. “With these killings, Russia is sending an entirely opposite signal: Russia is counting on more killings,” he said.
Elsewhere, Ukrainian emergency services said drone strikes injured 12 people in the eastern Kharkiv region and damaged a refrigeration facility, greenhouses and homes.
In the Black Sea port city of Odesa, five people were reported injured after a warehouse was targeted and residential buildings were damaged.
Russia’s Ministry of Defence said its forces shot down 212 Ukrainian drones overnight. The governor of Russia’s Samara region, Vyacheslav Fedorishchev, said local air defences had repelled an aerial attack, without providing further details.
