KYIV — At least 26 people were killed after Russian bombs hit an aid distribution center and a neighboring shelter in southern Ukraine on Monday.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said in a post on X that strikes first targeted a school building used to distribute humanitarian aid and then took aim at a nearby shelter.
“This is further proof that Russia wants no de-escalation,” Zelensky said.
He posted a video showing a huge crater left after Monday’s attack, and rescuer teams searching through the rubble.
The attacks in the village of Komyshuvakha, in the southern Zaporizhzhia region, occurred as a limited ceasefire expired Monday in Kherson, a different region in the country’s south. The limited ceasefire agreement had allowed humanitarian aid and evacuation missions into front-line areas in Russian-occupied territory.
Five people were injured and 27 others initially reported missing after at least nine 3,000kg aerial bombs hit the village of Komyshuvakha in the southern Zaporizhzhia region, regional head Mykhailo Semikin said.
The Russian military has not publicly commented.
Zelensky initially put the death toll at 18, but Ukraine’s state emergencies service DSNS later said 24 people, including two rescuers and four police officers, were confirmed to have been killed.
In his video address late on Monday, Zelensky said 26 people were now known to have died.
He earlier said that “the Russians could not have been unaware that the local residents who remained in Komyshuvakha received humanitarian aid there every week” on Monday.
Zelensky said that after a recent successful joint Russian-Ukrainian operation to evacuate civilians from the Russia-occupied southern city of Oleshky during a temporary ceasefire brokered by US First Lady Melania Trump, “there was a moment when the next steps could show that peace is possible”.
“With such killings, Russia is sending the exact opposite signal — Russia is counting on further killings,” Zelensky said.
Meanwhile, Semikin described the Russian attack as a “terrible tragedy” for the village, confirming that “people are still under the rubble”.
He said rescue teams were working at the scene, but they had been forced to halt their operation a number of times because of Russian drone attacks in the area.
A day of mourning has been declared for Tuesday across the entire Zaporizhzhia region.
Russian President Vladimir Putin launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
Teams from Ukraine, Russia and the US are due to resume peace talks in Abu Dhabi, the United Arab Emirates, next week, US President Donald Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff said on X.
Since the talks were suspended in February, Moscow has stepped up attacks as Kyiv virtually ran out of Western-supplied interceptors to defend against missiles.
No major breakthrough is expected at the talks. Witkoff said the discussions would focus on “post-war security arrangements, de-escalation, humanitarian efforts, and next steps toward peace”.
Witkoff said US negotiators would also meet European and Nato officials this week in Brussels.
Source: Saudi Gazette