Ukraine aid site strike kills 29

The death toll from a Russian missile strike on a humanitarian aid distribution site in southern Ukraine reached 29 on Tuesday, according to regional officials. Another 48 people remain missing following the attack, which targeted a village in the Zaporizhzhia region.

The attack occurred during a wider wave of Russian strikes across the country. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy reported that Russia launched 289 attack drones, 17 ballistic missiles, and 59 cruise missiles across nine regions. He noted in an online post that the barrage coincided with U.S. elections.

The guided-bomb attack began by targeting a school building in the village of Komyushuvakha, which was being used to distribute humanitarian aid. The strike then hit a nearby shelter. Mykhailo Semikin, acting head of the regional military administration, said the dead included four police officers and two rescue workers. At least five other people were injured in the incident.

Other regions reported damage and casualties from the overnight strikes. In Kharkiv, a combined missile and drone attack wounded at least 62 people. A strike damaged a medical facility in the Nemyshlianskyi district, shattered windows in four apartment buildings, and damaged cars. Oleh Syniehubov, head of the regional military administration, said more than 200 patients were transferred to other medical facilities.

In the Dnipro area, local authorities reported that a Russian attack killed one person and wounded 17. Rescuers pulled a woman alive from the rubble on Tuesday morning. The strike damaged an outpatient clinic and a hospital, prompting the transfer of patients to other facilities, according to Oleksandr Hanzha, head of the regional military administration.

Russia’s Ministry of Defense stated that it shot down 856 Ukrainian drones overnight. Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said 493 drones were fired toward the capital. A Ukrainian drone attack wounded two employees at an oil refinery in Yaroslavl, regional Governor Mikhail Yevrayev said. He added that the refinery’s infrastructure sustained damage.

Rolling blackouts have been instituted in the south, west, and east of Russian-occupied Crimea. Moscow-installed officials said these power cuts followed attacks on energy infrastructure in the region.