Update, 12:31 p.m. Wednesday, Nov. 4, 2026: President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Wednesday the death toll had risen to 40, with some victims not yet identified, and that "more than 30 people may still be trapped under the rubble," Ukrinform reported, citing his Facebook post. Interfax-Ukraine also reported the 40 toll. Zelenskyy said rescuers were working under the constant threat of new strikes and asked for more air defense help: "Evil always goes further if left unanswered." The Zaporizhzhia region has declared three days of mourning, Nov. 3 through 5, Ukrinform reported.

KYIV, Ukraine, Nov. 4, 2026 — The death toll from a Russian air attack on a school used as a humanitarian aid center in the Ukrainian village of Komyshuvakha has risen to 37, Ukraine's State Emergency Service said Wednesday as rescuers searched the rubble for a third day, the Kyiv Independent reported.

Ivan Fedorov, co-chair of the Zaporizhzhia Regional Defense Council, said earlier that 59 people were considered missing, the Kyiv Independent reported. He said some may have been identified as of 8 a.m. local time Wednesday but didn't say how many.

What happened

Russian forces struck Komyshuvakha with aerial bombs on Nov. 2, hitting a school building where residents regularly received humanitarian aid, according to the Kyiv Independent. Nine 3,000-kilogram aerial bombs hit the village as residents gathered at the distribution center, authorities said, the BBC reported. Local media reported that people took refuge underground when the attack began, but the roof collapsed and trapped many of them, the BBC said.

President Volodymyr Zelensky said Russian forces carried out several bombing runs that morning, first striking the school and then dropping another nine bombs on a shelter where people had taken refuge, the Kyiv Independent reported. He called it an "exceptionally horrific strike."

"Russian forces could not have been unaware that local residents who remained in Komyshuvakha received humanitarian aid there every week," Zelensky said.

The BBC reported Zelensky called it "one of the largest mass killings committed by Russia during this war."

Rescue workers and police had arrived when the threat of another strike emerged, the emergency service said. They took shelter, and Russian forces struck the same site again. Two rescue workers, Denys Konovalenko and Oleksii Sushchevskyi, both 44, were among those killed, the service said.

"The scale of the tragedy is horrific. Behind every number lies a human life, a family that has lost its loved ones or is still waiting for news of their loved ones," regional Gov. Mykhailo Semikin said, according to the Kyiv Independent.

What Russia and the UN say

Russia's defense ministry said the attack targeted Ukrainian military units and killed 25 servicemen, the BBC reported. The BBC's Russian service defense correspondent, Ilya Abishev, reported there was no credible evidence that the site was being used by Ukraine's military.

The UN's human rights monitoring mission said the aid distribution at the school had been highly publicized and that the attack "seems to have violated the most fundamental principles of international humanitarian law," the BBC reported.

Other strikes the same night

Russian strikes over 24 hours killed at least 38 civilians across Ukraine, including the Komyshuvakha victims counted at that point, the BBC reported Tuesday. A Russian missile destroyed a hospice in Dnipro, where nearly 50 terminally ill patients were moved to other facilities, and a hospital was hit in Kharkiv, where Zelensky said 73 people were wounded, most of them elderly patients.

"These are elderly, terminally ill people. This is a Russian missile," Dnipro Mayor Boris Filatov wrote on Telegram, sharing photos of the damaged hospice.

Kyiv's water supply was cut off "due to enemy attacks and damage to the capital's energy infrastructure," the city's water utility, Kyivvodokanal, said, according to the BBC.

Background

Komyshuvakha is about 20 kilometers, or roughly 12 miles, from the front line, according to the Zaporizhzhia Investigation Center, cited by the Kyiv Independent. Ukraine had proposed extending last week's ceasefire in the Kherson region, which let people evacuate the Russian-occupied town of Oleshky, Zelensky said; he called the Komyshuvakha strike Moscow's response, the BBC reported.

What's next

The Kremlin said it will take part in U.S.-brokered three-way talks with Ukraine in Abu Dhabi on Nov. 10-11, the first such meeting since February, the BBC reported. Zelensky said he hadn't seen "any indication" that Russia was serious about a ceasefire. The search in Komyshuvakha continues.

Sources: The Kyiv Independent, citing Ukraine's State Emergency Service, Nov. 4, 2026; BBC News, Nov. 3-4, 2026.

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