Ukraine-Russia war latest: Zelensky condemns Moscow’s ‘insane’ attack on school that left at least 40 dead

Volodymyr Zelensky on Wednesday condemned a deadly Russian bombing that killed at least 40 people at school in southeastern Ukraine.The Ukrainian president said search and rescue operations were ongoing three days after Moscow dropped nine aerial bombs on the settlement of Komyshuvakha, in Zaporizhzhia region.“They first struck people who had come to receive humanitarian aid, and then first responders and police officers who arrived at the scene,” he claimed in a post on Twitter/X.“Unfortunately, there has been very little reaction from the world to this insane attack. But it, like thousands upon thousands of other war crimes Russia has committed against Ukraine and Ukrainians, demands a strong response,” he said.Russian retail giant Ozon said meanwhile that one of its warehouses in southern Russia had been struck in a drone attack, triggering a fire and forcing the company to stop taking some orders.The company did not attribute blame for the attack, but Ozon and its main competitor Wildberries have seen their assets repeatedly targeted by Ukraine in recent months. Kyiv accuses them of supporting Vladimir Putin’s war effort.European troops prepare for postwar Ukraine mission fraught with challengesThousands of European troops will take part in a military exercise in Poland this month to prepare for a hypothetical postwar mission in Ukraine to boost the country’s economy and rebuild its armed forces. But some experts say the deployment may never take place.The force's first military exercise, led by Britain and France, is aimed both at testing deployment plans and sending a message to Russia and the Trump administration that European countries are stepping up militarily. Yet the overall mission is plagued with challenges, including the ongoing fighting, questions over American support and the outcome of the upcoming French elections.Britain and France are both part of a wider political group of 37 nations supporting Ukraine known as the Coalition of the Willing.Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has repeatedly said that in the event of a peace deal, there must be strong security guarantees from Kyiv’s Western allies, including the United States, to deter Russian President Vladimir Putin from attacking the country again. That's where this force could come in.“This exercise shows the UK is stepping up, alongside France and our allies, to prepare for the day peace comes to Ukraine,” British Defence Secretary Wes Streeting said.Rituparna Chatterjee4 November 2026 16:00Melania Trump receives Ukraine's Order of Princess Olga, 1st class honourUkrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has awarded US first lady Melania Trump a state honour for her role in helping to organise a humanitarian evacuation from a frontline town last week, according to a decree published on Wednesday. The presidential ​decree, ⁠dated 2 November, cited her "significant personal contribution" to ⁠humanitarian support for Ukraine and her ​work ⁠to help Ukrainian ‌children, including those deported or forcibly moved from Russian-occupied territory.(Reuters)The award - the Order of Princess Olga, 1st class - honours women who have made exceptional contributions in spheres including science, education, culture and charitable work. Ukrainian officials have said Melania Trump played a pivotal role in organising the six-day ceasefire to evacuate civilians from the Russian-occupied ‌southern Ukrainian town of ​Oleshky, which concluded on Sunday.It was the longest local pause in fighting since Russia's full-scale invasion in 2022. Nearly 800 people were evacuated, Melania Trump said. Rituparna Chatterjee4 November 2026 15:30Ukraine's rescuers deal with grim aftermath of aid shelter bombings: 'Scale of tragedy is terrifying'Rescuers worked in a desperate search for survivors at an aid distribution site destroyed by a series of Russian attacks in a village in southern Ukraine. The death toll reached 31 as they removed bodies throughout the day and looked for dozens of people still missing.Monday's attacks on a shelter and former school with bunker-busting bombs came as people were lined up for aid in Komyshuvakha, a village in the Zaporizhzhia region. Teams of emergency workers and volunteers picked through debris at the cratered blast sites, as bodies were pulled from the rubble and carried away in white plastic sheeting. More than 45 residents remained missing.“The scale of the tragedy is terrifying,” said Mykhailo Semikin, acting head of the region’s military administration, in an online post. “This is one of the worst tragedies in terms of the number of civilian victims in our region since the start of the full-scale war.”The area was targeted by back-to-back strikes by Russia (Reuters)Rituparna Chatterjee4 November 2026 15:00How Russia responded to US midterms electionsRussian deputy foreign minister Sergei Ryabkov was quoted as saying by Russian state news agency RIA earlier: “Let’s wait for the final results. The Democratic Party leadership’s approach to relations with Russia is sharply negative. There is nothing new about that.“Our principled and consistent line regarding Ukraine as well as our foreign policy in general is not based on short-term considerations and, naturally, does not depend on the fluctuations of the political barometer in other countries. “We will continue our work in accordance with the directives of the President of the Russian Federation.”Rituparna Chatterjee4 November 2026 14:30Russia bombards Ukraine power grid before Abu Dhabi talksRussia bombarded Ukraine's energy infrastructure in waves, knocking out power to swathes of the country with dozens of missiles and hundreds of drones, a week before US-brokered peace talks were due to resume. Ukrainian servicemen open fire to shoot down a Russian drone at the site of an underground shelter at a compound of a local school, which was used as a humanitarian aid hub and was hit by a Russian airstrike in the frontline town of Komyshuvakha, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, in Zaporizhzhia region, Ukraine, 2 November 2026 (Reuters)President Volodymyr Zelensky said at least 33 people had been killed on Monday when Russia twice bombed a school being used for aid distribution in the village of Komyshuvakha, near the front line in ⁠Ukraine's Zaporizhzhia region. About 50 people were still believed to be buried under the rubble, he said.Russian officials said Ukraine had set fire overnight to a major oil refinery in the city of Yaroslavl. The attacks, less than two days after the end of a brief humanitarian truce in the Russian-controlled town of Oleshky agreed with the help of US first lady Melania Trump, did not bode well for the talks that the US has scheduled for Abu Dhabi on November 10-11.Rituparna Chatterjee4 November 2026 14:00Ukraine’s anti-graft bureau completes investigation into money-laundering schemeUkraine’s National Anti-Corruption Bureau (NABU) said on Wednesday it had completed its investigation into its highest-profile wartime case - an alleged money-laundering scheme in the country's energy sector.The case had ensnared a former deputy prime minister and energy minister, as well as forcing out president Volodymyr Zelensky's former chief of staff. All have denied wrongdoing. NABU said it was still ‌trying to recover the proceeds ⁠of laundered kickbacks which organisers had solicited from contractors of state energy ⁠enterprises, including atomic agency Energoatom.The total amount laundered exceeded $111m and 12m euros, NABU added. Ukraine ‌ranked 104th out of ​182 countries in Transparency International's latest Corruption ‌Perceptions Index, under which the lowest ​ranked country is perceived as the most corrupt.Rituparna Chatterjee4 November 2026 13:30Why did Air Serbia divert flight to Moscow?Air Serbia diverted a flight to Moscow back to Belgrade late on Tuesday due to additional security checks of a passenger, Serbias national carrier said in a statement. "After Air ⁠Serbia subsequently ​received information ⁠that required additional airport security checks, the company ⁠acted in accordance with the ​instructions ⁠of the ‌competent authorities and all applicable procedures," the company said.The Flightradar24 app showed the plane turning back about halfway to Moscow and landing in Belgrade. The ⁠company also said its crew acted in accordance with the procedures and the safety standards, adding that passengers would be informed about the flight ‌later.Although Serbia condemned Russia's 2022 invasion of Ukraine, it did not introduce sanctions against Russia. Air Serbia maintains regular flights to Moscow and other cities.Rituparna Chatterjee4 November 2026 13:00Ukraine's anti-graft police target senior officials in major fraud investigationUkrainian anti-corruption investigators said on Wednesday they believed senior security and law enforcement officials were involved in covering up a major fraud scheme at the centre of an expanding new probe. Top employees of Ukraine's ⁠SBU security service, the National Police and the Prosecutor General's Office had taken bribes to shield a call centre scamming unwitting victims, the National Anti-Corruption Bureau (NABU) said.The probe, unveiled in September, forced the resignation of former Prosecutor General Ruslan Kravchenko after authorities accused a subordinate of helping run the ring, which investigators say targeted both Ukrainians and foreigners. Kravchenko was not charged with a crime. Tackling high-level corruption is key to Ukraine's efforts to ⁠join the European Union and to continue receiving badly needed financial aid ​from ⁠donors to help it fend ‌off Russia's invasion, now in its fifth year.NABU and its sister agency, the Specialised Anti-Corruption Prosectuor's Office (SAPO), have targeted top officials in cases that have roiled the political establishment. The SBU confirmed in a ‌statement that investigators were searching some of its employees and said it was cooperating with the probe.The police said it had suspended the officers under investigation, while warning against "premature conclusions". The Prosecutor General's office said it was ready to cooperate, but that it was unaware of any illegal activities by the employees implicated by the NABU.Rituparna Chatterjee4 November 2026 12:30Russia-held Crimea orders power cutsRussia-held Crimea ordered power cuts ‌after an accident outside the region, a Moscow-installed official said.A drone attack near the southern city of ⁠Krasnodar next to Crimea set fire to a logistics hub of Russian retailer Ozon.The cause of the incident in the peninsula Russia annexed from Ukraine in 2014 was not immediately clear. The neighbours deny deliberately targeting civilians in the war that started with Russia's invasion of Ukraine in 2022. Last month, a Kremlin aide ‌said Moscow's attitude ⁠to three-way peace talks with Ukraine and the ⁠United States would depend in part on whether Ukraine launched ‌a large-scale ​attack on Russia's National Unity ‌Day, a public holiday ​observed on 4 Nov.Rituparna Chatterjee4 November 2026 12:00Ukrainian-born Republican Victoria Spartz loses her seatThree-term Republican US Rep Victoria Spartz in Indiana’s 5th Congressional District lost to Hoosier Democrat JD Ford on Tuesday night, flipping a seat the GOP had held for years.Spartz said: “This election is a wake-up call for Indiana. An influx of liberal voters has turned Hamilton County, once one of the top 20 most conservative counties in the country, blue - with not enough rural Indiana voters to offset those numbers. “Democrats significantly outspent us and ran a very dishonest campaign, but I urge my supporters not to get discouraged. We may not win every battle, but WE WILL WIN THE WAR!”Spartz is a Ukrainian-born American politician.Rituparna Chatterjee4 November 2026 11:38