Ukrainian officials reported 40 deaths after Monday’s strike on a school shelter in Komyshuvakha, while regional official Ivan Fedorov said 59 people were missing as rescue crews searched the site.
President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said bombs hit the underground school while residents were arriving to collect aid, followed by further strikes on the shelter. Although classes had stopped because the school was near the front, the site held a weekly humanitarian aid distribution and served as a shelter.
Two rescue workers and four police officers were among those killed, emergency services said. Reuters reported that the village is about 17 kilometers from the nearest Russian positions. The count is higher than the 29 dead and 48 missing in EconoTimes’ earlier report on the strike.
Russia’s Defence Ministry said its forces targeted Ukrainian military units near Komyshuvakha and two other settlements, and claimed as many as 25 Ukrainian servicemen were killed. Both governments have denied intentionally attacking civilians.
Reuters verified police footage recorded by an officer who died in the strike. The video shows people moving toward an underground shelter after a radio warning about incoming glide bombs; an explosion then cuts off the recording.
The strike followed the end of a six-day pause for evacuations from Russian-occupied Oleshky. Reuters reported that U.S. first lady Melania Trump brokered the truce, and Trump said nearly 800 people left the town under the arrangement.
U.S. envoy Steve Witkoff said Monday that Ukrainian and Russian delegations would meet in Abu Dhabi on Nov. 10-11. According to Reuters, the planned discussions include ending the war, postwar security arrangements and reducing tensions.
