School Shelter Strike Kills 31

Russian forces dropped at least nine bombs on a school building in southeastern Ukraine, killing at least 31 people who had taken shelter inside.

The attack occurred in the village of Komyshuvakha in the Zaporizhzhia region. Local governor Mykhailo Semikin confirmed that 31 people are dead and 48 remain unaccounted for. The building served as a shelter and a humanitarian aid distribution center at the time of the strike.

The structure was a newly built, EU-funded reinforced basement designed to withstand most aerial attacks. Semikin stated that the massive force of the bombs caused the concrete structure to collapse. A fire broke out after the impact, trapping people inside.

The shelter was constructed last year to keep classes running during the war. As fighting moved closer to the village, many civilians left the area. The building is no longer used for school classes. Local authorities currently operate it as an administrative center and a hub for distributing humanitarian aid.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky described the strike as utterly horrific. He noted that the attack happened on a Monday while aid was being distributed. Zelensky said the strike preceded a larger Russian barrage of hundreds of drones and dozens of missiles targeting energy infrastructure. This happened despite calls from US President Donald Trump for an energy ceasefire.

Zelensky addressed the timing of the attack on Tuesday morning. He said it is telling that the strikes occurred on the day of US congressional elections. He argued that Russia believes America will not notice the signal. Zelensky emphasized that such terror must be noticed and stopped. He added that Ukraine needs help defending its skies to stop missile strikes.

The assault on Komyshuvakha followed a pattern of double-tap strikes. Russian forces launched the first wave of attacks and waited for emergency services to arrive. A second wave of strikes then hit the scene. At least two first responders, Denys Konovalenko and Oleksiy Sushchevsky, were killed. Both men were 44 years old.

Ukrainian police confirmed that at least four of their officers died in the attack. The officers were Mykhailo Buzhenko, Mykola Balanda, Mykhailo Romanov, and Dmytro Besedin. Buzhenko and Balanda each had more than two decades of police service. Romanov and Besedin had served as community police officers for more than a decade.

The police said the officers were helping local residents take shelter in the underground school. A follow-up strike trapped everyone trying to escape. Semikin told national television on Tuesday that Russia used KAB-500 and FAB-3000 bombs. He explained that the three-ton aerial bomb contained nearly 1.5 tons of explosive material. Such weapons are designed to destroy heavy concrete fortifications and bunkers.