Russian strike on school kills at least 31 in Ukraine village

Russian forces struck a school being used as an aid distribution point in Ukraine, killing at least 31 people in the village, according to a regional official. Russia bombed the village, located near the frontline in Ukraine’s southeastern region of Zaporizhzhia on Monday. Acting head of the Regional Military Administration of Zaporizhzhia, Mykhailo Semikin said that five people were injured in the strikes and almost 50 people were still to be found in the village of Komyshuvakha. Among those killed were two members of a rescue crew and four police officers, according to emergency services in the area, after Russia launched a back-to-back strike following the initial bombing. Two rescue workers are among those being treated in hospital. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky had earlier said that Russian forces initially dropped aerial bombs on the school, which was being used as a shelter and for distributing humanitarian assistance every Monday.Rescuers carry the body of a person killed by a Russian airstrike inside an underground shelter (Reuters)There were no classes at the school, he said, as the village, lying southeast of the region's main city, also called Zaporizhzhia, was too close to the front line in the 4-1/2-year-old war."The Russians struck first just as people were arriving – a few aerial bombs," he said. "Then there was a second strike – more air bombs, this time on the shelter. A vile terrorist strike."Zelensky said the Russians could not have been unaware that residents remaining in Komyshuvakha gathered each week to pick up humanitarian packages.The Russian Defence Ministry said the attack had targeted Ukrainian military units in areas around Komyshuvakha and two other settlements in the Zaporizhzhia region.It said in a statement on Tuesday that up to 25 Ukrainian servicemen had been killed, with 15 vehicles and an electronic warfare station also destroyed. Russia and Ukraine both deny deliberately targeting civilians in the conflict.At least 31 people are believed to be dead, while almost 50 remain missing (Reuters)In August, UN monitors said that casualties have risen sharply from last year, adding that more civilians were killed or injured in the war in Ukraine in July than in any month since March 2022.Zelensky said the attack had shown that Moscow was intent on killing people instead of building on the past week's humanitarian mission in the southern city of Oleshky, brokered by US first lady Melania Trump."Russians continue to demonstrate, time and again, their hatred of Ukraine and everything that exists here," he said."If Russia genuinely wanted de-escalation, there was an opportunity following the situation in Oleshky to continue taking humanitarian steps. We proposed this. But Russia continues to kill people."Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha also condemned the attack on Tuesday. "Another barbaric and cynical Russian attack," he said. "Russia's cruelty knows no bounds, and its disregard for human life has no moral justification."The area was targeted by back-to-back strikes by Russia (Reuters)Earlier, Sybiha, citing the attack, urged countries to shun Russian participation in top-level sport following a ruling by sport's highest court ordering the country's reinstatement in major tournaments."Russia deserves condemnation, isolation, and consequences, not a return to international respectability," Sybiha wrote on X. "Its crimes cannot be separated from its flag, its national teams, or its attempts to regain international legitimacy."Regina Kharchenko, secretary of the Zaporizhzhia City Council, said 27 people were missing in the attack.Zaporizhzhia region police said officers and rescue teams were trying to reach residents believed to be trapped under rubble. Photographs posted online showed smouldering rubble strewn throughout the area.The attack occurred a day after the expiry of a six-day local ceasefire arranged to bring aid into Oleshky to the southwest in Kherson region and evacuate residents wishing to leave.In Washington, a senior US official told Reuters that the US will bring together delegations from Ukraine and Russia in Abu Dhabi on November 10 to 11 to discuss moves toward ending the war, post-war security agreements and de-escalation.US negotiators have been seeking a breakthrough before winter in the long-running conflict. The last US-mediated peace talks took place in February before the US and Israel launched a war against Iran.