At least 26 people were killed when Russian forces attacked a humanitarian aid distribution site in Ukraine, according to a post by Indian broadcaster Odisha TV (@otvkhabar) 1. A report in Bangladesh's The Business Standard, which cited BBC reporting, placed the attack in Komyshuvakha, a village in the southern Zaporizhzhia region, and attributed the casualty figures to Ukrainian officials. The toll has not been independently confirmed.
According to that report, the site was a local school where residents gathered each week to receive humanitarian supplies. Ukrainian officials said Russian forces dropped at least nine aerial bombs weighing 3,000 kg each. President Volodymyr Zelensky said the school was struck first, followed by a second attack on the place where residents had gathered for shelter. These accounts could not be checked against other outlets or independent monitors.
Ukrainian officials said those killed included two emergency-service rescuers and four police officers, and that five people were injured, The Business Standard reported. Twenty-seven people were initially listed as missing, and regional officials cautioned that the number of dead could rise. The Odisha TV post also gave a figure of 26 dead 1.
Zelensky described the attack as "utterly horrific" and said Russia must have known that villagers collected aid at the site every week, according to the report. He called the strike evidence that Moscow does not want de-escalation. Mykhailo Semikin, head of the Zaporizhzhia region, called it a terrible tragedy, said people remained trapped under rubble and said rescue work was repeatedly interrupted by the threat of Russian drones. Russia's military had not publicly commented.
Odisha TV linked the strike to a US announcement of new peace talks 1. The Business Standard reported that delegations from Ukraine, Russia and the United States are due to resume talks in Abu Dhabi next week, though officials do not expect a quick breakthrough. US Special Envoy Steve Witkoff said the agenda would include post-war security, de-escalation, humanitarian efforts and next steps toward peace, according to the report.
Zelensky said the attack followed a six-day temporary truce, which he described as the longest ceasefire of the war, the report said. He contrasted the strike with a recent joint evacuation of civilians from Oleshky carried out during a truce brokered by US First Lady Melania Trump. The report also said Russia has intensified strikes across Ukraine while Kyiv faces a serious shortage of Western air-defence interceptors.
Other reports from the past 72 hours described Russian drone and missile attacks on Ukrainian energy infrastructure, including the Ladyzhyn thermal power plant in Vinnytsia region and the Kryvorizka plant in Dnipropetrovsk region, as well as a ballistic missile strike on Dnipro. Ukrainian forces were also reported to have attacked an oil refinery in Russia's Yaroslavl region.
The exact timing of the Komyshuvakha strike has not been clearly established. A regional day of mourning was declared for Tuesday, 3 November, which suggests the attack took place shortly before then. All casualty figures come from Ukrainian officials and remain preliminary.