Ukraine death toll reaches 29 after drone strike on aid shelter in Zaporizhzhia
Rescuers recovered bodies from the cratered site in Komyushuvakha while overnight Russian missile and drone attacks hit power plants and hospitals across the country.
By Lucas Chen ·
The number of people killed in a Russian strike on a humanitarian aid facility in southern Ukraine reached 29 on Tuesday. The attack targeted a shelter in the village of Komyushuvakha, located in the Zaporizhzhia region, where residents had gathered for aid. Forty-eight people remained missing as of the latest count.
Rescuers and volunteers searched the damaged site, pulling bodies from the rubble and covering them in white plastic sheeting. Mykhailo Semikin, the acting head of the regional military administration, described the event as one of the worst tragedies for civilian victims in the area since the start of the full-scale war.
Russian forces used bunker-busting bombs for the Monday strike, according to Semikin. He stated that the bombs contained nearly 1.5 tons of explosives. Three days of mourning were declared in the Zaporizhzhia region.
The dead included four police officers and two rescue workers. At least five additional people were injured in the blast. A separate attack in the northeastern Kharkiv region wounded at least 62 people, local authorities reported.
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Russia launched 289 attack drones, 17 ballistic missiles, and 59 cruise missiles across nine Ukrainian regions. He noted that the barrage occurred during U.S. elections and said Russia likely believed America would not notice the signal. Zelenskyy urged allies to help Ukraine defend its skies to stop the missile strikes.
The overnight attacks caused emergency power cuts and damaged medical facilities. In the Nemyshlianskyi district, a strike shattered windows in four apartment buildings and damaged cars. Over 200 patients were transferred to other medical facilities, according to Oleh Syniehubov, head of the regional military administration.
In the Dnipro area, rescuers pulled a woman from the rubble Tuesday morning. A Russian attack in that region killed one person and wounded 17 others. The strike damaged an outpatient clinic and a hospital, prompting the transfer of patients to other facilities, said Oleksandr Hanzha, head of the regional military administration. Russia's Ministry of Defense claimed it shot down 856 Ukrainian drones overnight, while Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said 493 drones were fired toward the capital.
Source: WVIZ
