KOMYSHUVAKHA, Ukraine — The death toll from Monday's Russian bombing of an aid distribution point in the village of Komyshuvakha, in Ukraine's southeastern Zaporizhzhia region, has risen to 40, officials said on Wednesday, with dozens still missing — one of the deadliest strikes on civilians this year, Reuters reported.

Source: Reuters, Nov 4, 2026

This update follows Awaaz Punjab's earlier report the same day, when the confirmed toll stood at 37 and rescuers were searching the rubble for a third day: Read the earlier report: Komyshuvakha toll at 37 as search continues

Ivan Fedorov, co-head of the Zaporizhzhia Regional Defense Council, wrote on Telegram that 59 people were missing. President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has said more than 30 people may still be trapped under the rubble, and Fedorov said 12 bodies pulled from the debris had been identified so far, the Kyiv Independent reported. Reuters footage on Wednesday showed men in military fatigues loading bodies in white plastic bags into the back of a van in Komyshuvakha, which was struck multiple times, while excavators dug up earth near a huge blast crater and rescue workers searched underground for bodies.

Source: Reuters, Nov 4, 2026; Kyiv Independent, Nov 4, 2026

Zelenskiy has said Russian forces first dropped aerial bombs on an underground school building being used as a distribution point as people arrived to collect aid, then struck the shelter with more bombs. Classes had long been suspended at the school because of its proximity to the front — Komyshuvakha lies some 17 km (11 miles) from the nearest Russian positions — but it served as a shelter and handed out humanitarian aid every Monday, Zelenskiy said. The village has been treated as a front-line settlement since November 2025 amid repeated Russian guided aerial bomb attacks, according to the Zaporizhzhia Investigation Center, cited by the Kyiv Independent. Ukrainian officials said at least nine guided aerial bombs hit the settlement, among them a 3-ton FAB-3000 glide bomb carrying around 1.4 tons of explosives. The World Central Kitchen charity said the facility that was hit was a humanitarian and administrative centre for locals.

Source: Reuters, Nov 4, 2026; Kyiv Independent, Nov 4, 2026

Rescuers and police among the dead — and a bodycam that recorded the end

Two members of a rescue crew and four police officers were among the dead, emergency services said. Ukraine's State Emergency Service named the two rescuers as Denys Konovalenko and Oleksii Sushchevskyi, both 44 — Konovalenko had served in civil protection for nearly 12 years and Sushchevskyi had worked in fire and rescue since 2013, the Kyiv Independent reported. Bodycam footage from one of the policemen killed in the attack, posted by Ukrainian police and verified by Reuters, shows rubble and badly damaged buildings after the initial attacks; the policeman says the area is under threat from drones and takes shelter briefly, then 15 to 20 people in civilian clothing are gathered outside the entrance to an underground shelter when a warning comes over the radio that Russian glide bombs are heading toward the village. Residents rush down several flights of stairs, and the final frames show three other men and a woman before a large explosion turns the camera black.

Source: Reuters, Nov 4, 2026; Kyiv Independent, Nov 4, 2026

Russia's Defence Ministry said the attack targeted Ukrainian military units around Komyshuvakha and two other settlements, and that up to 25 Ukrainian servicemen were killed. That is Moscow's account, attributed here; it does not match the Ukrainian account of an aid queue and a shelter being bombed, and neither side's claim about who was in the building has been independently verified. Russia and Ukraine both deny deliberately targeting civilians.

Source: Russian Defence Ministry, via Reuters, Nov 4, 2026

What happens next

The search in Komyshuvakha continues, and the confirmed toll may rise again as more rubble is cleared. The strike came a day after a six-day, US-brokered local ceasefire to evacuate civilians from the Russian-occupied southern town of Oleshky expired — a truce brokered by US First Lady Melania Trump that allowed nearly 800 people to be evacuated, for which Zelenskiy awarded her a state honour. Diplomatically, the bombing hangs over the next round of talks: US envoy Steve Witkoff said on Monday that the United States will bring Ukrainian and Russian delegations together in Abu Dhabi on November 10–11 to discuss ending the war, now in its fifth year, postwar security agreements and de-escalation.

Source: Reuters, Nov 4, 2026

The Abu Dhabi meeting was announced earlier this week: Read: Witkoff says US will host Ukraine and Russia delegations in Abu Dhabi on November 10–11