Ukrainian leader says Russian ‘senseless attack’ on aid center may have killed 70, calls for air defense

Kyiv — The death toll from a Russian missile strike on a Ukrainian aid distribution center has risen to 40 people, President Zelensky said in a social media message on Wednesday. Zelensky said Russia on Monday dropped nine bombs on an old school used to distribute humanitarian aid in Ukraine’s southeastern Zaporizhzhia region.

“They first hit people who came to receive humanitarian aid, then first responders and police officers who arrived on the scene,” Zelensky wrote, stressing that rescue operations were still underway as of Wednesday afternoon and that “more than 30 people could still be under the rubble.”

The Russian Defense Ministry said a strike in the region targeted the Ukrainian military and claimed that as many as 25 Ukrainian servicemen were killed. Russia denies deliberately targeting civilians, despite regular strikes hitting apartment buildings and other civilian infrastructure.

On Tuesday, Russia launched one of its biggest attacks of the year on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure, hitting facilities in 10 different regions, according to Ukraine’s Energy Ministry.

The attacks affected the Ukrainian capital’s water supply, with kyiv residents losing running water to their homes for more than 16 hours. Kyivvodokanal, the city’s water utility, said kyiv’s water supply and sewage pumping stations had resumed operations on Wednesday afternoon.

Russian and Ukrainian representatives will travel to the White House on Friday to meet with Melania Trump, after the first lady negotiated a temporary ceasefire last week to allow the evacuation of civilians and the delivery of humanitarian aid to Oleshky, a Russian-occupied town in southern Ukraine, officials in kyiv and Moscow said.

Ukrainian Human Rights Commissioner Dmytro Lubinets and Davyd Arakhamiia, the head of Zelensky’s parliamentary faction, will attend the meeting, according to Ukrainian newspaper Ukrinform.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Russian envoy Kirill Dmitriev and human rights commissioner Yana Lantratova planned to represent Russia at the meeting, but visa issues could affect their travel.

Zelensky announced Wednesday that the U.S. first lady will receive Ukraine’s highest female honor, the Order of Princess Olga, 1st Class, for her role in brokering a limited ceasefire.

He also promised a Ukrainian response to the Russian attack on the Zaporizhzhia aid center, and a day after Democrats took control of both houses of the U.S. Congress, he renewed his call for more missile interceptors and other key military support.

“Unfortunately, there has been very little reaction from the world to this senseless attack. But it, like thousands and thousands of other war crimes committed by Russia against Ukraine and Ukrainians, demands a strong response,” Zelensky wrote on