KOMYSHUVAKHA, Ukraine — Ukraine's military intelligence agency (HUR) on Saturday, November 7, identified seven Russian servicemen it says were involved in the November 2 airstrike on a school in Komyshuvakha, in Ukraine's southeastern Zaporizhzhia region, where civilians had gathered to receive humanitarian aid. Local authorities reported that at least 55 people were killed in the attack, with more than 50 still missing, as search and rescue operations entered their sixth day, the Kyiv Independent reported.
Source: Kyiv Independent via Zot News
HUR named Fedor Zubakov, head of the fire-strike planning group at the headquarters of Russia's Dnepr Group of Forces, as the officer who planned the attack. It also named six pilots it said carried out the bombing: Captain Sergei Yeliseyev, Captain Dmitry Zverev, Senior Lieutenant Rodion Plotnikov, Senior Lieutenant Nikita Ignatyev, Senior Lieutenant Maksim Sokolenko and Lieutenant Vadim Perekhrest. The agency said the crew of a seventh aircraft was still being identified, and that at least four Russian Su-34 fighter-bombers took part in the operation. The Kyiv Post, reporting the same announcement, said rescuers had recovered nine more bodies from the rubble, taking the toll to 55.
Source: Kyiv Post
Saturday's naming follows Friday's update, when the toll from the November 2 bombing of the aid distribution point rose to 53 on the fifth day of the rescue operation. Read the earlier report: Komyshuvakha toll rises to 53 as search enters fifth day
A toll that has climbed all week
The figure of 55 is the latest step in a count that has risen in dated stages as rescuers worked through the rubble: 31 confirmed on November 3, 42 given by police on November 5, 50 in the State Emergency Service's update on the morning of November 6 and 53 in the acting regional governor's announcement later that day. Officials have cautioned throughout that the count is not final while people remain unaccounted for. The strike is the deadliest Russian attack on Zaporizhzhia region since the start of the full-scale invasion, Ukrainian officials say.
The rescue itself is being carried out under fire. Rescuers 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. Some of the bodies recovered are so badly damaged that authorities are collecting DNA samples from relatives to identify them, he said.
What Ukraine says happened on November 2
Russian forces struck the front-line village several times on November 2, first hitting an underground school where residents had gathered to receive humanitarian aid, Ukrainian officials said. One of the bombs was a 3-ton FAB-3000, containing more than 1,000 kilograms of explosives. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Russian forces then dropped another nine aerial bombs on a shelter where civilians and rescue workers had taken refuge — a sequence Ukrainian officials describe as a double strike. Two rescue workers and a military medic who rushed to help the wounded were among those killed. The attack destroyed what Kovalenko described as the only relatively safe place left in the settlement. The United Nations human rights mission in Ukraine said earlier in the week that the bombing likely violated international law.
What is solid
- Ukraine's HUR announced on November 7 that it had identified a Russian planning officer, Fedor Zubakov of the Dnepr Group of Forces headquarters, and six named Su-34 pilots in connection with the November 2 Komyshuvakha strike, with a seventh aircraft crew still being identified (Kyiv Independent; Kyiv Post).
- Local authorities report at least 55 people killed and more than 50 still missing, with search and rescue work in its sixth day on Saturday (Kyiv Independent).
- The November 2 target was an underground school building used as a shelter and humanitarian aid distribution point; one bomb was a 3-ton FAB-3000 (Kyiv Independent; Reuters reporting earlier in the week).
What is only claimed
- The named men's individual responsibility rests on HUR's intelligence, published by Ukraine as an allegation for documentation purposes; it has not been tested in any court and Russia has not responded to the names.
- Russia's Defence Ministry has said the November 2 attack targeted Ukrainian military units around Komyshuvakha and two other settlements and that up to 25 Ukrainian servicemen were killed — a characterisation Ukraine and the UN human rights mission dispute.
What happens next
Watch whether the toll rises further as the search continues, whether Ukraine passes the HUR identifications to international war-crimes investigators, and whether Russia responds to being named. Zelenskyy said on November 4 that the attack had drawn very little reaction from the international community and demanded air-defence support: 'Evil always goes further if it goes unchallenged. We are counting on a response: Ukraine needs air defence support right now.'