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 42, Ukrainian police said on Thursday — making it one of the deadliest strikes on civilians in the war this year.

Source: Reuters

Zaporizhzhia police said on the Telegram messaging app that up to 33 people remained buried beneath the rubble, and that rescue work and efforts to identify the bodies were continuing for a fourth day. The toll has climbed day by day since the strike — Awaaz Punjab reported it at 40 on Wednesday, with search teams still working through the wreckage.

Ukraine's national police said the strikes included a 3-ton FAB glide bomb, a weapon that defence intelligence websites say carries around 1.4 tons of explosives. The bomb hit a school building in the village, near the front line, that was being used to distribute humanitarian aid; the school had been closed to students because the village sits too close to the fighting, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Monday.

Source: Reuters

Rescuers and police among the dead

Among the dead were two members of a rescue crew and four police officers, according to Ukraine's emergency services, Al Jazeera reported. Zelenskyy announced the raised toll on Wednesday, adding that some bodies had not yet been accounted for. The United Nations human rights mission in Ukraine said on Tuesday that the bombing likely violated international law.

Source: Al Jazeera

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. Moscow and Kyiv both deny deliberately targeting civilians. Reuters said it could not independently verify the battlefield reports, and Awaaz Punjab presents each side's casualty and targeting claims as that side's claims.

Zelenskyy said the attack was, in his words, further proof that Russia does not want any kind of de-escalation, and Ukrainian intelligence has warned that Russia is preparing a new massive attack on the country's energy and logistics networks. The strike came days before delegations from Ukraine and Russia are due to meet in Abu Dhabi on November 10 and 11 for US-brokered talks on post-war security agreements, de-escalation, humanitarian measures and ending the war, as announced by US special envoy Steve Witkoff.

Source: Al Jazeera

What happens next: rescue teams say the search at Komyshuvakha will continue until the rubble is cleared and the missing are accounted for, so the toll may rise again. The Abu Dhabi talks on November 10–11 are now the next test of whether either side is willing to slow the air war that produced strikes like this one.