Arabic version: قصف روسي يقتل 24 شخصاً في مركز مساعدات بأوكرانيا

According to BBC News, at least 24 people were killed when Russian bombs struck a humanitarian aid distribution centre in Komyshuvakha, a village in Ukraine’s southern Zaporizhzhia region.

Ukraine’s state emergencies service, DSNS, said the dead included two rescuers and four police officers. Five people were injured, while 27 people were initially reported missing after at least nine 3,000kg aerial bombs hit the village, regional head Mykhailo Semikin said.

President Volodymyr Zelensky described the attack as “utterly horrific”. He said an initial strike hit a local school used for humanitarian needs, followed by a second attack on the place where people were sheltering. Zelensky posted video showing a large crater and rescue teams searching the rubble.

Semikin called the bombing a “terrible tragedy” for the village and said people remained under the rubble. Rescue crews were working at the site but had to stop several times because of Russian drone attacks in the area.

The Russian military had not publicly commented. Zelensky said residents who remained in Komyshuvakha received humanitarian aid at the site every week and argued that Russia was signalling it was “counting on further killings”.