At least 26 killed in Russian strikes on Ukrainian aid site, officials say

Russian bombing killed at least 26 people at a humanitarian aid distribution centre and a neighbouring shelter in southern Ukraine on Monday, according to President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Ukrainian emergency services. The attack hit Komyshuvakha, a village in the south-eastern region of Zaporizhzhia.

Emergency services said the dead included two rescue crew members and four police officers. Five people were receiving hospital treatment, among them two rescue workers. Regina Kharchenko, secretary of the Zaporizhzhia city council, said 27 people were missing following the attack.

In his nightly video address, Zelenskyy said the first bombs fell on a school being used to shelter people and distribute humanitarian assistance. The village lies south-east of Zaporizhzhia city, the regional capital. Classes were not being held at the school because of its proximity to the frontline, he said.

Zelenskyy said several aerial bombs struck as people arrived at the site, followed by a second bombing that hit the shelter. He said Russian forces could not have been unaware that residents who remained in the village visited the location each week to collect humanitarian packages.

Images and video shared online by local officials showed emergency teams searching collapsed buildings with torches after darkness fell. Rescue work continued into Monday evening, but additional Russian drone attacks on the bombed area obstructed those efforts, according to Zaporizhzhia military official Mykhailo Semikin.

The Ukrainian president contrasted the bombing with a ceasefire brokered last week by US first lady Melania Trump in Oleshky, a Russian-occupied city in southern Ukraine. He said Kyiv had proposed further humanitarian measures after that pause, but accused Moscow of choosing to continue killing people instead of pursuing de-escalation.

The Oleshky ceasefire allowed an evacuation from the city and was the longest halt in fighting between Russia and Ukraine during the war. Now in its fifth year, the conflict has killed hundreds of thousands of people and forced millions from their homes. The Kremlin said similar missions were not currently being planned.

Meanwhile, US special envoy Steve Witkoff said on Monday that US-led negotiations between Russia and Ukraine would resume in Abu Dhabi on 10 and 11 November. President Donald Trump has sought a settlement to the prolonged conflict without achieving a breakthrough. The planned talks come amid concern in Kyiv and among its European allies that Trump has increasingly aligned himself with Moscow.