Russian strikes kill 29 at Ukrainian aid site, leave 48 missing

Russian forces launched a coordinated assault on a humanitarian aid distribution point in southern Ukraine on Monday, killing 29 people and leaving 48 missing as of Tuesday. The attack struck the village of Komyushuvakha in the Zaporizhzhia region, where residents had gathered to collect supplies. Rescuers and volunteers continued searching the cratered debris of the destroyed shelter and aid facility on Tuesday, recovering bodies wrapped in white plastic sheeting.

Mykhailo Semikin, the acting head of the regional military administration, described the event as one of the worst tragedies in the region since the start of the full-scale war. He stated that the dead included four police officers and two rescue workers. At least five additional people were injured in the blast. Russian military forces used bunker-busting bombs containing nearly 1.5 tons of explosives in the attack, according to Semikin. The Zaporizhzhia region declared three days of mourning.

The strike occurred amid a widespread wave of overnight attacks that targeted infrastructure across the country. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Russia launched 289 attack drones, 17 ballistic missiles, and 59 cruise missiles across nine regions. He noted that the timing of the barrage coincided with U.S. elections. Zelenskyy argued that Russian leaders believed the United States would not notice their signal. He called for assistance to defend Ukraine's skies to stop the missile strikes.

In the Kharkiv region to the northeast, a combined missile and drone attack wounded at least 62 people, local authorities reported. The strike damaged a medical facility in the Nemyshlianskyi district and shattered windows in four apartment buildings. Oleh Syniehubov, head of the regional military administration, said more than 200 patients were transferred to other medical facilities.

In the Dnipro area, rescuers pulled a woman from the rubble on Tuesday morning after an attack killed one person and wounded 17 others. Oleksandr Hanzha, head of the regional military administration, confirmed that the strike damaged an outpatient clinic and a hospital, prompting the transfer of patients to other institutions.

Russia's Ministry of Defense stated that it shot down 856 Ukrainian drones overnight. Sergei Sobyanin, the Moscow mayor, said 493 drones were fired toward the capital. In the Russian city of Yaroslavl, regional Gov. Mikhail Yevrayev reported that a Ukrainian drone attack wounded two employees at an oil refinery and damaged its infrastructure. Rolling blackouts were implemented in the south, west, and east of Russian-occupied Crimea following attacks on energy infrastructure, according to Moscow-installed officials.