Zelensky says 33 killed in Russian attack on Ukraine aid site

Russian glide bombs struck a school and shelter in Komyshuvakha, in the southern Zaporizhzhia region, on Monday morning as residents gathered for humanitarian aid, the UN human rights monitoring mission in Ukraine said.

Speaking in Berlin on Tuesday, President Volodymyr Zelensky said 33 people had been killed and five rescued. He said more than 50 people could still be under the rubble.

The UN mission said local authorities had reported at least 31 civilians killed and five injured by early Tuesday evening. Search and rescue operations were continuing, and the mission said it was working to verify the casualty figures. Local officials said the dead included four police officers and two rescue workers.

The aid distribution had been announced on social media the day before, with the school named as the location, the UN mission said. Its head, Danielle Bell, said the attack appeared to have violated fundamental principles of international humanitarian law. She said Russian forces either knew about the distribution or had failed to take basic steps to find out what was happening there.

Russia’s defence ministry said it had targeted Ukrainian military units in areas around Komyshuvakha and two other settlements, killing up to 25 servicemen, Reuters reported. It is unclear whether that claim refers to the school attack. The BBC reported that there was no credible evidence the site was being used by the Ukrainian military.

Rescuers and volunteers continued to search the ruins on Tuesday. Pastor Vladyslav Makhovskyi, who joined the operation, told the Associated Press that residents had trusted the shelter and some had spent nights there because they felt safer.

In the central city of Dnipro, nearly 50 terminally ill patients were being moved to other facilities after a Russian missile destroyed their hospice on Monday night, the BBC reported. It said a separate strike in the city killed two people, while five others were killed in attacks in the eastern Donetsk region.