Death toll reaches 29 after Russian strike hits aid site in southern Ukraine

The number of confirmed dead from a Russian strike on a humanitarian aid facility in southern Ukraine climbed to 29 on Tuesday. Authorities reported that 48 people remain missing as rescuers continue searching the rubble in the village of Komyushuvakha, located in the Zaporizhzhia region.

Mykhailo Semikin, the acting head of the region's military administration, described the event as one of the worst tragedies in the area since the start of the full-scale war. He stated that the attack involved bunker-busting bombs containing nearly 1.5 tons of explosives. Three days of mourning were declared in Zaporizhzhia in response to the loss of life.

The dead included four police officers and two rescue workers, Semikin said. At least five additional people were injured in the blast. Volunteers and professional rescuers worked through the day to clear the cratered site, pulling out bodies wrapped in white plastic sheeting.

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Russia launched 289 attack drones, 17 ballistic missiles, and 59 cruise missiles across nine regions overnight. The barrage caused emergency power cuts and damage to critical infrastructure. Zelenskyy noted that the attacks coincided with U.S. elections, stating that Russia believes the United States will not notice the signal.

In the northeast region of Kharkiv, a combined missile and drone attack wounded at least 62 people. Local authorities reported that a strike damaged a medical facility in the Nemyshlianskyi district, shattering windows in four apartment buildings and damaging cars. More than 200 patients were transferred to other medical facilities, according to Oleh Syniehubov, head of the regional military administration.

In the Dnipro area, rescuers pulled a woman alive from the rubble on Tuesday morning. The Russian attack in that sector killed one person and wounded 17 others. Oleksandr Hanzha, head of the regional military administration, said the strike damaged an outpatient clinic and a hospital, forcing the transfer of patients to other facilities.

Russia's Ministry of Defense said it shot down 856 Ukrainian drones overnight. Sergei Sobyanin, the Moscow mayor, said 493 drones were fired toward the capital. In the Russian city of Yaroslavl, regional Governor Mikhail Yevrayev reported that a Ukrainian drone attack wounded two employees at an oil refinery and damaged the site's infrastructure. Rolling blackouts were instituted in the south, west, and east of Russian-occupied Crimea following attacks on energy infrastructure.