Aid Bombing

Russian bombs killed at least 24 people at a humanitarian aid centre in southern Ukraine on Monday, President Volodymyr Zelensky said. He called the strike "utterly horrific."

At least nine 3,000-kilogram aerial bombs hit the village of Komyshuvakha in the Zaporizhzhia region, BBC News reported. Five people were injured, regional governor Mykhailo Semikin said. He initially put the missing count at 27. Ukraine's state emergencies service later confirmed 24 dead, including two rescuers and four police officers, according to BBC News.

Zelensky said the first strike hit a local school used for humanitarian purposes. A second strike then hit the shelter where people had gathered. Nine more bombs fell "directly on the shelter where people were gathered" after the initial strike, Zelensky wrote on Telegram, according to Al Jazeera.

"The Russians could not have been unaware that the local residents who remained in Komyshuvakha received humanitarian aid there every week," Zelensky wrote, BBC News reported. "This is yet another proof that Russia does not want any de-escalation."

Semikin called the attack a "terrible tragedy" for the village, BBC News reported. Rescue crews kept searching the rubble, but Russian drone attacks nearby forced them to pause several times, he said.

Zelensky tied the strike to a recent joint operation that evacuated civilians from the Russian-occupied city of Oleshky. "There was a moment when the next steps could show that peace is possible," he told BBC News. "With such killings, Russia is sending the exact opposite signal."

Other strikes hit Ukraine the same day, according to Al Jazeera. Drone strikes in the eastern Kharkiv region injured 12 people and damaged a refrigeration facility, greenhouses and homes. Five people were hurt in the Black Sea port city of Odesa after a warehouse was targeted, and nearby homes were damaged too, Al Jazeera reported.

Russia's defense ministry said it shot down 212 Ukrainian drones overnight, Al Jazeera reported. Vyacheslav Fedorishchev, governor of Russia's Samara region, said local air defenses had repelled a separate aerial attack there. No further details.

Putin launched the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. In Komyshuvakha, search teams kept digging through the rubble Monday. They were still looking for anyone missing.