At least 31 people were killed when Russian forces bombed a school being used as an aid distribution point in a village near the front line in Ukraine's southeastern region of Zaporizhzhia on Monday, a regional official said, Reuters reports.
Mykhailo Semikin, acting head of the Regional Military Administration of Zaporizhzhia, said during a live broadcast on national TV that five people were also injured and almost 50 people were still missing after the attack in the village of Komyshuvakha.
Two members of a rescue crew and four police officers were among those killed, emergency services said, after Russia launched a double-tap strike in the wake of the initial attack. Two more rescue workers were among those being treated in hospital.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy 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.
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."
Zelenskiy 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.
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.
Follow us on Telegram
t.me/apanewsaz
Follow us on Instagram
Follow us on TikTok
Follow us on Facebook
Follow us on X
