kyiv, Ukraine (AP) — Rescuers worked a second night Tuesday in a desperate search for survivors at an aid distribution site destroyed by a series of Russian attacks in a village in southern Ukraine. The death toll reached 31 as they removed bodies throughout the day and searched for dozens of people still missing.
Monday’s attacks on a shelter and a former school with anti-bomb bombs took place as people queued for help in Komyshuvakha, a village in the Zaporizhzhia region. Teams of rescue workers and volunteers searched through debris at the explosion sites, while bodies were pulled from the rubble and carried away in white plastic sheeting. More than 45 residents were still missing.
“The scale of the tragedy is terrifying,” Mykhailo Semikin, acting head of the region’s military administration, said in a message posted online. “This is one of the worst tragedies in terms of civilian casualties in our region since the start of the large-scale war. »
As Ukraine prepares for a new round of U.S.-brokered peace talks next week, More than four and a half years after Russia’s all-out invasion, a wave of strikes overnight Tuesday targeted power plants across the country, damaged hospitals and injured dozens of people.
Russia launched 289 attack drones, 17 ballistic missiles and 59 cruise missiles in nine regions, triggering emergency power cuts, president says Volodymyr Zelensky said in an online article noting that the blockade coincided with the U.S. midterm elections.
“The Russians think America won’t notice their signal,” he said. “But we must notice and stop such terror. We must help Ukraine defend its skies, otherwise Russia will never stop its missile strikes.”
A volunteer describes the consequences
Baptist pastor Vladyslav Makhovskyi joined the search for survivors, removing bodies and helping elderly Komyshuvakha residents swaddled in blankets.
He told The Associated Press that the attack on the shelter was “truly devastating” and came as a shock to residents who had sought refuge there.
The shelter was sturdy and offered internet access and other supports, and “it was a place they trusted,” Makhovskyi said.
“People even came to spend the night there because they felt safer there,” he added. “I had been to this school and its underground shelters several times.”
He was hit by a Russian bomb “so powerful that it went through the heavily reinforced concrete blocks,” he said. “The work is not done. There are other (bodies) in there.”
Bodies wrapped in sheets of white plastic were carried from the ruins and arranged in rows as smoke spread across the destroyed landscape. Rescue efforts were interrupted Tuesday by threatening Russian drones, forcing soldiers to halt recovery operations and open fire in an attempt to bring them down.
Three days of mourning were declared in Zaporizhzhia. The dead included four police officers and two rescue workers, Semikin said. At least five people were injured.
Zelensky said on X that the strikes first targeted the old school which was regularly used for the distribution of humanitarian aid, then targeted a nearby shelter.
“This is further proof that Russia does not want de-escalation,” he said.
Attacks intensified after humanitarian ceasefire
The attack occurred after the expiration of a six-day ceasefire in the Russian-occupied town of Oleshky, which allowed trapped residents to evacuate. It was the most important truce between Kyiv and Moscow since 2022.
“We proposed to Russia to extend the ceasefire in Oleshky, but the response was: new attacks, new strikes, new killings of our people,” Zelensky said in Berlin, where he met German Chancellor Friedrich Merz and attended a security conference.
In the northeastern region of Kharkiv, a Russian missile and drone attack injured at least 62 people, local authorities said.
A strike damaged a medical facility in Nemyshlianskyi district, shattered windows of four apartment buildings and damaged cars. More than 200 patients were transferred to other medical facilities, said Oleh Syniehubov, head of the regional military administration.
In the Dnipro region, rescuers pulled a woman alive from the rubble Tuesday morning after a Russian attack killed one person and injured 17 others, local authorities said.
The attack damaged an outpatient clinic and a hospital. The patients were transferred to other hospitals, said Oleksandr Hanzha, head of the regional military administration.
Power plants shelled during the latest barrage
Russia attacked more power plants and other infrastructure ahead of winter, causing widespread damage and power outages, as it carried out 20 strikes in 10 regions overnight, Ukraine’s Energy Ministry said.
Ukrainian power company DTEK said three of its power plants had halted operations. No injuries were reported.
The Russian Defense Ministry said it shot down 856 Ukrainian drones overnight. Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said 493 drones had been fired at the capital.
A Ukrainian drone attack injured two employees at an oil refinery in the Russian city of Yaroslavl, regional governor Mikhail Yevrayev said, adding that the refinery’s infrastructure was damaged.
Permanent power outages have been instituted in the south, west and east of Russian-occupied Crimea following attacks on energy infrastructure, Moscow-based officials said.
Zelensky consults Europeans before peace negotiations
Zelensky’s trip to Germany marked the start of a new round of consultations with European leaders ahead of U.S.-brokered peace talks Nov. 10-11 in Abu Dhabi.
US President Donald Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff confirmed the dates for the talks, with negotiations expected to focus on post-war security arrangements, de-escalation and humanitarian efforts. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov confirmed that a Russian delegation would be present.
Zelenskyy said Ukraine’s priorities in the negotiations were ending strikes on energy and critical infrastructure, unblocking grain shipments from the Black Sea and expanding prisoner exchanges.
He said he hoped these talks and other diplomatic efforts would pave the way for trilateral talks between the countries’ leaders, which he said were needed to resolve key issues.
“Europe’s involvement in the process – to achieve peace – is essential,” he said. “We are doing everything possible to ensure that we have a common European vision of all security challenges and how this war should end and what its outcome should be.”
Zelensky told the Berlin Security Conference that although his country is going through extremely difficult times, “Ukraine will never surrender.”
Asked if he still believed the United States could end the war, Zelensky replied: “President Trump is still president. He added that “America has enormous influence and power” to push Russian President Vladimir Putin to negotiate.
Russia agreed last month to resume tripartite negotiations with Washington and kyiv aimed at ending the war, marking the first such talks since February.
The European Commission said it would hold a meeting on Wednesday with officials from France, Germany, the United Kingdom, the European Union, NATO, the United States and the World Bank to discuss post-war reconstruction in Ukraine. Zelenskyy said a Ukrainian delegation would be present.
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Moulson reported from Berlin. Susie Blann in kyiv, Ukraine, and Elise Morton and Brian Melley in London contributed.
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Follow AP coverage of the war in Ukraine at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine
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