The death toll from a Russian bombing of an aid distribution point in Ukraine’s southeastern Zaporizhzhia region on Monday rose to 40, with dozens still missing, officials said, in one of the deadliest strikes against civilians this year.
The attack came a day after the expiration of a brief local ceasefire brokered by the United States and less than a week before the United States was to bring together Ukrainian and Russian delegations in Abu Dhabi for negotiations on ending the war, now in its fifth year.
Reuters footage on Wednesday showed men in military fatigues loading bodies into white plastic bags into the back of a van in the village of Komyshuvakha, which was hit several times.
Excavators dug up dirt near a huge explosion crater as rescuers searched for bodies underground.
Ivan Fedorov, co-head of the Zaporizhzhia Regional Defense Council, wrote on Telegram that 59 people were missing.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Russian forces first dropped aerial bombs on an underground school building used as a distribution point as people arrived to collect aid, then hit the shelter with more bombs.
Classes have long been suspended at the school due to its proximity to the front – Komyshuvakha is about 18 kilometers from the nearest Russian positions – but it served as a shelter and distributed humanitarian aid every Monday, Zelenskyy said.
Two members of a rescue team and four police officers were among the dead, emergency services said.
The Russian Defense Ministry said the attack targeted Ukrainian military units around Komyshuvakha and two other settlements, and that up to 25 Ukrainian servicemen were killed.
Russia and Ukraine both deny deliberately targeting civilians.
Dramatic images
Body camera footage from one of the officers killed in the attack, released by Ukrainian police and verified by Reuters, shows rubble and badly damaged buildings following the initial air attacks.
The police officer said the area was under drone threat and appeared to briefly shelter inside the shell of a bombed building.
Later in the sequence, 15 to 20 people in civilian clothes are gathered at the entrance to an underground shelter when a warning sounds over the radio that Russian hover bombs are heading toward the village.
Residents rush down several floors and toward a room, while the officer with the body camera walks through a door and into what appears to be a temporary police station.
Three more men and a woman are visible in the final footage before there is a large explosion and the camera cuts to black.
In a social media post accompanying the images, national police said several strikes hit the area, including a 3-ton FAB bomb, which is a large bomb equipped with a glide kit that allows it to fly long distances after being dropped from a Russian warplane.
According to defense intelligence websites, a 3-ton glide bomb would carry approximately 1.4 tons of explosives.
Fighting resumes after brief local ceasefire
The strike came a day after the expiration of a six-day ceasefire aimed at evacuating civilians from the Russian-occupied town of Oleshky in southern Ukraine.
The truce, negotiated by first lady Melania Trump, allowed the evacuation of nearly 800 people, according to the first lady. Zelensky awarded Trump a state honor for his role.
The United States will bring together Ukrainian and Russian delegations in Abu Dhabi on November 10 and 11 to discuss ending the conflict, post-war security arrangements and de-escalation, US envoy Steve Witkoff said on Monday.
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