Tuesday 3 November 2026
Russia bombs a Ukraine aid centre, killing at least 31, then fires one of the war's largest barrages on the day Americans vote
At least 31 people are dead and 48 are still unaccounted for as of November 3 after Russian bombs hit a school in the village of Komyshuvakha in Ukraine's Zaporizhzhia region on Monday, CNN reported, where residents gathered every Monday to collect humanitarian aid. The Associated Press put the confirmed toll at 29 earlier on Tuesday, with the search through the rubble still running. Ukraine's emergency service said two rescuers and four police officers were among the dead. Overnight, Russia launched 289 attack drones, 17 ballistic missiles and 59 cruise missiles across nine regions, the Ukrainian military said. A strike on Kharkiv wounded at least 62 people. The barrage knocked out power in Kyiv and at least six other regions, and the energy company DTEK said three of its five thermal power plants were offline. President Volodymyr Zelensky said it was very telling that all of this is happening on the day of the United States congressional elections. American envoy Steve Witkoff announced on Monday that delegations from Ukraine, Russia and the United States will meet in Abu Dhabi on November 10 and 11.
The school in Komyshuvakha no longer held classes. The village sits too close to the front line, and the building had become the place where the people who stayed collected aid every Monday. Zelensky said the first bombs fell just as people were arriving, and a second strike hit the shelter where people had taken cover. Regional head Mykhailo Semikin said at least nine bombs struck the village, and CNN reported that the weapons included KAB-500 and FAB-3000 guided bombs and that a reinforced basement built with European Union funding was hit. The two dead rescuers were named by the emergency service as Denys Konovalenko and Oleksiy Sushchevsky, both 44. They were killed in the second strike, after they had arrived to pull people out of the first one.
The toll climbed all day Monday, from 18 in Zelensky's first statement to 24 confirmed by the emergency service, then 26 in his evening address, then 29 in the Associated Press count and 31 in CNN's reporting on Tuesday, with 48 people still unaccounted for as of November 3. Crews paused the search several times because Russian drones were overhead. Zaporizhzhia region declared Tuesday a day of mourning. Russia's military had not publicly commented on the aid centre strike in the reports available this morning. Latvia, which took over the rotating presidency of the United Nations Security Council this month, called an emergency session over the attack.
The overnight barrage was the second blow. Ukrainian officials counted 289 drones, 17 ballistic missiles and 59 cruise missiles, and said railways were hit along with the power grid. Russia said it shot down 856 Ukrainian drones overnight, and Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said 493 of them were aimed at the capital. Those Russian figures are Moscow's claims and have not been independently verified. Ukraine also set fire to a major oil refinery in Yaroslavl overnight, Reuters reported, extending the refinery campaign Kyiv resumed last week.
The diplomacy runs on a separate track and a slower clock. Witkoff said the Abu Dhabi talks on November 10 and 11 will cover post war security arrangements, de-escalation, humanitarian efforts and next steps toward peace, and that American negotiators will meet officials from France, Germany, the United Kingdom, the European Union and NATO in Brussels this week. The last round of American mediated talks was in February. No major breakthrough is expected, and the men who will sit in Abu Dhabi will do so a week after the worst single strike on an aid distribution point in months.
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