At least 24 people were killed after a wave of Russian aerial bombs struck a civilian humanitarian distribution center in southern Ukraine, local officials and state emergency services reported.
The bombardment targeted the village of Komyshuvakha in the Zaporizhzhia region, where at least nine heavy 3,000-kilogram aerial bombs slammed into the community. Regional head Mykhailo Semikin stated that five individuals sustained injuries, while 27 people were initially reported missing following the assault.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky denounced the offensive as utterly horrific, detailing a coordinated double-tap strategy. According to the president, the first strike hit a local school that had been repurposed to handle humanitarian needs, followed immediately by a second strike targeting the location where survivors and residents were sheltering.
Zelensky initially placed the death toll at 18, but the State Emergency Service of Ukraine later revised the figure upward to 24 confirmed dead. The final toll includes two emergency rescue workers and four police officers. Search and recovery operations were severely hampered by ongoing threats, with Semikin confirming that rescue teams were forced to suspend their work multiple times due to active Russian drone activity overhead. Authorities fear the final death toll could climb further as rescue personnel continue sifting through the debris.
Local authorities declared a day of mourning across the entire Zaporizhzhia region. Officials emphasized that the target was widely known as a regular distribution point for weekly aid to remaining residents. Zelensky argued that the timing of the attack directly undermined diplomatic efforts, noting that the strike occurred shortly after a successful joint humanitarian operation that had evacuated civilians from the Russian-occupied southern city of Oleshky during a temporary ceasefire brokered by U.S. First Lady Melania Trump.
“The Russians could not have been unaware that the local residents who remained in Komyshuvakha received humanitarian aid there every week,” Zelensky wrote in a social media statement, adding that Moscow was signaling a commitment to continued conflict rather than de-escalation. The Russian military has not publicly commented on the strike.
