Russian bombing kills 33 people at aid center in southern Ukraine
KYIV — Dozens of people were killed when Russia dropped at least nine bombs on a school building in southeastern Ukraine where they had taken shelter, President Volodymyr Zelensky said Tuesday, describing it as “one of the deadliest attacks of this war.”
At least 33 people have been confirmed dead and another 50 are still unaccounted for after the attack on the building in Komyshuvakha in the Zaporizhzhia region, which local governor Mykhailo Semikin said was being used as a shelter and a humanitarian aid distribution center.
Semikin said they were in a newly-built, EU-funded reinforced basement designed to withstand most strikes, but the massive force of the bombs caused the concrete structure to collapse and a fire broke out.
The shelter was built last year in an effort to keep classes going during wartime, but many civilians have since left as the fighting got closer to the village, and it is not currently used as a school. Instead, local authorities are using it as an administrative center and humanitarian hub.
“This is further proof that Russia wants no de-escalation,” Zelensky said.
He posted a video showing a huge crater left after Monday's attack, and rescuer teams searching through the rubble.
The attacks in the village of Komyshuvakha, in the southern Zaporizhzhia region, occurred as a limited ceasefire expired Monday in Kherson, a different region in the country’s south. The limited ceasefire agreement had allowed humanitarian aid and evacuation missions into front-line areas in Russian-occupied territory.
Zelensky said "the Russians could not have been unaware that the local residents who remained in Komyshuvakha received humanitarian aid there every week" on Monday.
He said that after a recent successful joint Russian-Ukrainian operation to evacuate civilians from the Russia-occupied southern city of Oleshky during a temporary ceasefire brokered by US First Lady Melania Trump, "there was a moment when the next steps could show that peace is possible".
"With such killings, Russia is sending the exact opposite signal — Russia is counting on further killings," Zelensky said.
Meanwhile, Semikin described the Russian attack as a "terrible tragedy" for the village, confirming that "people are still under the rubble".
He said rescue teams were working at the scene, but they had been forced to halt their operation a number of times because of Russian drone attacks in the area.
A day of mourning has been declared for Tuesday across the entire Zaporizhzhia region.
Russian President Vladimir Putin launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
Teams from Ukraine, Russia and the US are due to resume peace talks in Abu Dhabi, the United Arab Emirates, next week, US President Donald Trump's special envoy Steve Witkoff said on X.
Since the talks were suspended in February, Moscow has stepped up attacks as Kyiv virtually ran out of Western-supplied interceptors to defend against missiles.
No major breakthrough is expected at the talks. Witkoff said the discussions would focus on "post-war security arrangements, de-escalation, humanitarian efforts, and next steps toward peace".
Witkoff said US negotiators would also meet European and Nato officials this week in Brussels.
