29 killed in Zaporizhzhia as Ukrainian aid site destroyed

The number of people killed in a Russian attack on a humanitarian aid site in southern Ukraine rose to 29 on Tuesday, according to local officials. Forty-eight residents remain missing as search teams comb through the rubble in Komyushuvakha, a village in the Zaporizhzhia region. Rescuers and volunteers have been working to locate survivors under the debris of the destroyed facility and shelter. The recovery efforts have yielded more bodies, which were covered in white plastic sheeting and removed from the cratered blast site.

Mykhailo Semikin, the acting head of the regional military administration, described the event in an online post as one of the worst tragedies for civilian casualties in the area since the full-scale war began. He noted that the attack involved Russian bunker-busting bombs containing nearly 1.5 tons of explosives. Three days of mourning were declared in the Zaporizhzhia region. The dead include four police officers and two rescue workers, while at least five others were injured.

The strike was part of a larger overnight barrage that President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said targeted nine regions of Ukraine. Russia launched 289 attack drones, 17 ballistic missiles, and 59 cruise missiles. Zelenskyy stated that the timing of the attacks coincided with U.S. elections and suggested that Russia believed the United States would not pay attention. He urged international partners to help Ukraine defend its skies to stop the missile strikes.

In the Kharkiv region, a combined missile and drone attack wounded at least 62 people. Local authorities reported that a medical facility in the Nemyshlianskyi district was damaged. Windows in four apartment buildings were shattered, and several cars were hit. Oleh Syniehubov, the head of the regional military administration, said that more than 200 patients were transferred to other medical facilities.

In the Dnipro area, rescuers pulled a woman from the rubble on Tuesday morning. The attack in that region killed one person and wounded 17 others. Oleksandr Hanzha, the regional military administrator, confirmed that an outpatient clinic and a hospital sustained damage. Patients were moved to other hospitals to continue their care.

Russia's Ministry of Defense announced that it shot down 856 Ukrainian drones overnight. Moscow mayor Sergei Sobyanin reported that 493 drones were fired toward the Russian capital. In the city of Yaroslavl, regional Governor Mikhail Yevrayev said that a Ukrainian drone attack wounded two employees at an oil refinery and damaged the site's infrastructure. Rolling blackouts were also instituted in parts of Russian-occupied Crimea following attacks on energy infrastructure.