Zelensky says 40 killed in strikes on Ukrainian aid site

Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky said on 4 November that 40 people had been killed in strikes on a former school and nearby shelter in Komyshuvakha, in the Zaporizhzhia region. He said another 30 people could still be buried under the rubble.

The strikes hit on 2 November as residents were waiting for humanitarian assistance. The UN’s humanitarian coordinator in Ukraine, Matthias Schmale, attributed the attacks to Russian forces.

Schmale said further strikes at the same location killed two rescuers and four police staff who had responded to the initial attack. The Associated Press reported that the six were included among the dead.

Rescue teams were searching the site for a third day on 4 November, AP reported. Regional administrator Mykhailo Semikin gave a toll of 37 in the same report. The previous day, AP had reported 31 deaths; the figures are not separate groups of victims.

Baptist pastor Vladyslav Makhovskyi, who helped with the search, told AP that the shelter had been a place residents trusted. AP reported that drones interrupted recovery work on 3 November.

At a UN briefing that day, Secretary-General António Guterres condemned continuing Russian attacks on Ukrainian population centres and renewed his call for an immediate, full and unconditional ceasefire.