Double-Tap Strike Kills 40 in Ukrainian Village as Rescuers Hit Second Time
Russia struck a Ukrainian village twice in succession, killing at least 40 people and leaving about 30 more feared trapped under rubble, Kyiv says.
At least 40 people were killed when Russia launched a double-tap strike on a village in Ukraine's Zaporizhzhia region, Ukrainian officials said, with about 30 more people possibly still trapped beneath the rubble [279660]. The attack on Komyshuvakha came as Russian forces pounded aid sites and energy infrastructure across the country, killing dozens more in one of the war's deadliest waves of strikes.
Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said the strike hit a school in Komyshuvakha where people had gathered to receive emergency aid, killing 40 people [278760]. A double-tap strike is an attack that hits the same location twice, with the second strike targeting rescue workers and survivors as they arrive [277981]. Ukraine said bodycam video shows the attack followed that pattern: Russia hit the village, then struck again as rescuers reached the scene [279660].
Bodycam footage from a Ukrainian police officer recorded the moments before a Russian bomb struck a shelter in Komyshuvakha; the officer was killed in the attack, which killed at least 37 people [279329]. Rescue operations at the site continued, though officials described the work as difficult [278253].
The toll emerged amid a broader assault. At least 38 people were killed across Ukraine in 24 hours as Russian attacks hit an aid centre, a hospice and a hospital, officials said, with Zelenskyy warning that dozens more could be trapped under rubble [278353]. A Russian "double tap" strike on a Ukrainian school used for aid distribution killed at least 31 people, prompting Zelenskyy to call it a "vile terrorist attack" [277981]. A spokesperson for Ukraine's emergency services said an air attack on a small town in the Zaporizhzhia region killed 33 people, including rescue workers and police officers, and the United Nations condemned the attack [278291].
Russian strikes also hit a humanitarian aid site in the Zaporizhzhia region on Monday, 2 November, killing 33 people, with more than 50 others still missing and survivors and rescue workers treated for severe injuries [279341]. A three-ton bomb struck an aid queue in Komyshuvakha, where rescuers recovered 37 bodies two days later and dozens of people remained missing [278629].
Russia's campaign against Ukraine's power grid continued alongside the deadly strikes on aid sites. Russian drones and missiles hit energy sites across Ukraine, including three targeting a substation that a nuclear plant depends on [278629]. Russia launched 59 cruise missiles at Ukraine's power grid and bombed a hospital in Kharkiv, one of the largest strikes on Ukraine's energy infrastructure since the war began [278633]. Overnight strikes damaged a power substation in the Kyiv region as the two countries exchanged hundreds of drones [278893].