Tuesday 3 November 2026
The Komyshuvakha toll reaches 33 dead with about 50 people still believed buried, and Zelensky takes the case to Berlin before the Abu Dhabi talks
President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Tuesday that at least 33 people are confirmed dead in the bombing of the aid distribution school in Komyshuvakha, up from the 31 reported this morning, with about 50 people still believed buried under the rubble, as of November 3. The count moved through the day, from 29 dead on Tuesday morning to 31 and then 33. In the overnight barrage that followed the bombing, Ukraine counted 289 attack drones, 17 ballistic missiles and 59 cruise missiles, and the energy company DTEK said three of its five thermal power plants were knocked offline. Zelensky spent Tuesday in Berlin with Chancellor Friedrich Merz, ahead of the American mediated talks in Abu Dhabi on November 10 and 11.
Regional officials in Dnipro said two people were killed and about 20 wounded there in the overnight attacks, which hit a train station, carriages and locomotives. Emergency power cuts ran in Kyiv and at least six other regions, and Kyiv's mayor called the situation in the capital extremely difficult. Ukraine's energy minister, Denys Shmyhal, said three drones were directed at a substation that is crucial to the Khmelnytskyi nuclear power plant. That is a Ukrainian official claim and it has not been independently verified. Russia's defence ministry said its forces struck Ukrainian military units around Komyshuvakha and killed up to 25 servicemen. That account has not been independently established either.
The diplomacy now has a timetable around the Abu Dhabi meeting. The European Commission will host a meeting on Wednesday, November 4, with the United States, NATO, European allies and Ukraine to discuss a prosperity plan and security guarantees, and NATO hosts further consultations on Thursday, November 5. Merz said the Abu Dhabi talks are the right step, that Europe must be part of the process, and that he sees no sign Russia is serious about a ceasefire.
Russian officials said Ukrainian drones set fire overnight to a major oil refinery in Yaroslavl, northeast of Moscow. That is a Russian official claim reported by Reuters. Three days of mourning have been declared in the Zaporizhzhia region. The school in Komyshuvakha was hit by at least nine heavy aerial bombs on Monday while residents were gathered to receive humanitarian aid, in one of the deadliest single attacks of the war.
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