Aid Site Strike Kills 29 in Ukraine

Rescuers in the village of Komyushuvakha continued searching through the rubble of a destroyed humanitarian aid facility on Tuesday. The site, located in Ukraine's southern Zaporizhzhia region, had been struck by Russian bunker-busting bombs on Monday. Authorities reported that the death toll had risen to 29, with 48 residents still missing under the debris.

Mykhailo Semikin, the acting head of the regional military administration, described the event as one of the worst tragedies for civilian victims in the area since the full-scale war began. He noted that the Russian forces used bombs containing nearly 1.5 tons of explosives. White plastic sheeting covered the bodies of the deceased as they were carried from the cratered blast site.

The strike was part of a larger overnight assault that targeted infrastructure across nine regions of Ukraine. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy stated that Russia launched 289 attack drones, 17 ballistic missiles, and 59 cruise missiles. He said the timing coincided with U.S. elections, noting that the Russians likely believed America would not notice the signal. Zelenskyy called for continued defense of Ukrainian skies to stop the missile strikes.

In the northeast Kharkiv region, a combined missile and drone attack injured at least 62 people. Local authorities reported that a medical facility in the Nemyshlianskyi district was damaged, along with windows in four apartment buildings. Oleh Syniehubov, the regional military administration head, said more than 200 patients were moved to other medical facilities.

Damage was also reported in the Dnipro area, where one person was killed and 17 were wounded. Oleksandr Hanzha, the regional head, said an outpatient clinic and a hospital sustained damage, prompting the transfer of patients to other hospitals. Rescuers pulled one woman from the rubble alive on Tuesday morning.

Russia's Ministry of Defense claimed it shot down 856 Ukrainian drones overnight. Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin reported that 493 drones were fired toward the capital. In the Russian city of Yaroslavl, regional Governor Mikhail Yevrayev said two employees were wounded in a drone attack on an oil refinery. Rolling blackouts have been ordered in the south, west, and east of Russian-occupied Crimea following attacks on energy infrastructure.

Three days of mourning have been declared in Zaporizhzhia. The dead in the Komyushuvakha attack included four police officers and two rescue workers. At least five other people were hurt in the initial blast.