This is a new development in the Komyshuvakha story Awaaz Punjab reported on November 7, when Ukraine's military intelligence agency HUR put the death toll from Monday's guided-bomb attack on the village aid centre at 55, with around 50 people still missing. Read the earlier report: toll reaches 55 in Komyshuvakha
A Russian drone struck Ukrainian emergency workers on Sunday, November 8, as they carried out search and rescue operations at the site of Monday's deadly bombing in the village of Komyshuvakha, in Ukraine's southern Zaporizhzhia region, the Associated Press reported. No rescue personnel were injured in Sunday's strike, but specialised rescue equipment was damaged, according to Ukraine's State Emergency Service (SES).
The drone — described in Ukrainian reporting as an FPV (first-person view) drone — hit the former school and nearby shelter where rescue work has been under way for seven days, since Russian guided bombs destroyed the buildings on Monday, November 2, as residents waited to receive humanitarian aid. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy condemned Sunday's strike in a post on X, calling it "absolute cynicism and brutality" and accusing Russian forces of deliberately targeting the site while emergency crews were working there. He said more people could still be trapped under the rubble.
The search goes on under fire
Rescue teams at Komyshuvakha can work for only 15 to 20 minutes at a time before Russian drones and the threat of guided aerial bombs force them to withdraw, Oleksandr Kovalenko, a spokesperson for the Zaporizhzhia Oblast Military Administration, told the Kyiv Independent. Sunday's drone strike is the latest interruption to a search that has already run a full week.
Ukraine said Monday's attack killed at least 55 people. Around 50 people were still listed as missing, Ukraine's military intelligence agency, HUR, said, and many of the bodies recovered have not yet been identified, with DNA analysis ongoing. Among those waiting is village resident Mykola Krasnov, 72, who told the Associated Press on Saturday that he was still looking for his wife. "She went to get humanitarian aid, and a 3-ton bomb was dropped there. Where is she?" he said. "She didn't come home, and they didn't find her body there."
Farewells in Zaporizhzhia
On Saturday, police officers and relatives gathered in Zaporizhzhia for a farewell ceremony for six officers killed in Monday's strikes, including three who died near the former school, the AP reported. Three residents were also buried in the city. Community leader Yurii Karapetian, whose wife Natalia was killed while distributing bread to people in the shelter, said she had chosen to stay in Komyshuvakha to help other residents, many of them elderly and living alone.
The 'double-tap' accusation
HUR said on Saturday that it had identified some of the Russian service members involved in what it called the "double tap" strike with aerial bombs, which destroyed the former school and the underground facility residents used as a shelter. In its fuller account, reported by the Kyiv Independent, HUR named a Russian fire-strike planning officer and six pilots it alleges carried out the bombing. These are Ukrainian allegations; Russia has not publicly responded to them in the reporting, and they have not been independently verified.
Ukraine has routinely accused Russia of conducting multiple strikes at the same site in quick succession to target the emergency crews responding to an initial attack — the pattern known as a "double-tap" strike. Sunday's drone hit on the rescue site, a week after the original bombing, is being presented by Kyiv as further evidence of that tactic. Russia has not commented on Sunday's strike in the reports available.
What is solid
- A Russian drone struck the Komyshuvakha rescue site on Sunday, November 8, damaging specialised rescue equipment; no rescue personnel were injured — Ukraine's State Emergency Service, via AP and Ukrainian reporting.
- Rescue operations have run for seven days at the former school and shelter bombed on Monday, November 2, where residents had gathered for humanitarian aid.
- Ukraine puts the death toll from Monday's bombing at at least 55, with around 50 people still listed as missing and DNA identification of recovered bodies ongoing — HUR, via AP.
What is only claimed
- Responsibility and intent: Zelenskyy says Russian forces deliberately targeted rescuers; Russia has not commented on Sunday's strike in the available reporting, and the claim of deliberate targeting has not been independently verified.
- The Russian personnel named by HUR as planners and pilots of the November 2 bombing are Ukrainian allegations that have not been independently verified.
What happens next
The search at Komyshuvakha continues under the drone threat, and the toll may rise as the roughly 50 missing are accounted for. The strike comes days before US-brokered trilateral talks between Ukraine, Russia and the United States, expected in Abu Dhabi on November 10-11, at which Zelenskyy has put an energy ceasefire first. Kyiv says Russia has intensified strikes ahead of the talks to put pressure on Ukraine; Moscow has not accepted that characterisation in the reporting. Awaaz Punjab will update this story as the rescue operation and identification work continue.