At least 18 people were killed and five injured in a series of Russian bombardments on Komyshuvakha, in Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia region, President Volodymyr Zelensky said. He reported that several bombs struck the village during the morning, including a school being used to distribute humanitarian aid to residents.
Zelensky said a second wave of nine bombs hit a shelter where people were gathered. He argued that Russian forces knew humanitarian assistance was being distributed at the site and said the attack demonstrated that Moscow was not seeking de-escalation or meaningful justice.
The reported toll later rose. Mykhailo Semikin, a member of the Zaporizhzhia regional military administration, said 27 people remained missing and that nine guided bombs weighing three tonnes each had struck the village. Emergency services reported 24 deaths, including two firefighters and four police officers, while the number of injured remained at five. Search operations were continuing.
Elsewhere in Ukraine, Russian attacks also caused civilian casualties. An artillery strike on Nikopol, in the Dnipropetrovsk region, injured two children, a four-year-old boy and his 10-year-old brother. A Russian drone attack in Mala Danylivka, in the Kharkiv region, killed a worker transporting specialist equipment, according to local authorities.
In Sloviansk, in the Donetsk region, a Russian strike using two FAB-250 bombs killed a 68-year-old woman and injured six people, municipal authorities said. The attack damaged residential buildings, a healthcare facility, a post office, a shop and several vehicles. Another drone attack in Mykolaivka, in the Sumy region, killed a man and seriously injured his wife, while damaging several houses.
Ukraine’s Energy Ministry said Russian forces had targeted energy, oil and gas facilities 94 times during the previous week, causing 208 incidents involving destruction or damage. Ukrenergo reported power cuts in nine regions, with the situation described as particularly critical in Dnipropetrovsk and Kyiv because of damage to electricity infrastructure.
The Ukrainian defence ministry also said Russian forces had suffered their heaviest monthly losses of the full-scale war in October, estimating 54,400 soldiers killed or wounded. The ministry’s figures were presented with caution, as casualty estimates released by parties to the conflict cannot be independently verified.
Sources: Le Monde International.