At least 38 civilians were killed and scores more injured in Russian attacks across Ukraine over a 24-hour period, including strikes on an aid distribution centre, a hospice and a hospital, according to Ukrainian officials.
The heaviest reported loss of life was in Komyshuvakha, in the southern Zaporizhzhia region, where at least 33 people died when glide bombs struck on Monday night. President Volodymyr Zelensky said more than 50 people might remain trapped beneath the rubble and described the attack as one of the largest mass killings of the war.
Authorities said nine aerial bombs, each weighing 3,000kg, hit as residents gathered to receive humanitarian aid at a distribution centre in a school building. Local media reported that people took shelter underground after the attack began, but the roof collapsed and trapped many. Regional head Mykhailo Semikin said the scale of the loss was difficult to comprehend.
Russia’s defence ministry said the strike targeted Ukrainian military units and killed 25 servicemen. The UN human rights monitoring mission said the aid distribution had been widely publicised and that the attack appeared to violate fundamental principles of international humanitarian law. BBC Russian correspondent Ilya Abishev reported there was no credible evidence the site was being used by the military and no major military or industrial facilities in the settlement.
In Dnipro, a Russian missile destroyed a hospice, prompting the transfer of nearly 50 terminally ill patients to other facilities. The oldest was 90. Mayor Boris Filatov shared images of patients in beds amid broken windows and debris, saying he wanted people, including politicians and diplomats abroad, to see the impact of the strike. A separate attack in the city killed two people and wounded 18.
A hospital in Kharkiv was also hit. Zelensky said 73 people were wounded there, most of them elderly patients. In the eastern Donetsk region, aerial bomb and drone strikes killed five more people.
Russian attacks on energy infrastructure affected nine regions, disrupting water and heating. Kyiv’s water supplier, Kyivvodokanal, said the city’s water supply had been completely cut because of damage to energy infrastructure. The metro network was suspended on Tuesday, and Mayor Vitali Klitschko described the power situation as very difficult.
Zelensky said Ukraine had proposed extending and expanding a ceasefire in the Kherson region that had allowed residents to evacuate from the Russian-occupied frontline town of Oleshky. He said the attack on the aid centre in Komyshuvakha was Moscow’s response.
The Kremlin announced that Russia would take part in US-brokered three-way peace talks with Ukraine in Abu Dhabi on 10 and 11 November. Speaking in Berlin, Zelensky said Russia needed to engage seriously in negotiations but that he had seen no indication it was doing so.
Sources: BBC News World.