Komyshuvakha strike toll rises to at least 40, Zelenskyy says

As of 2:55 p.m. ET, Wednesday, Nov. 4, 2026

At least 40 people have been killed in Russia's Nov. 2 bombing of a humanitarian aid site in the southern Ukrainian village of Komyshuvakha, and more than 30 others may still be under the rubble, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Wednesday, as search and rescue work went into a third day.

Zelenskyy said in a Telegram post at about 8:31 a.m. ET that Russian forces dropped nine aerial bombs, striking first at people who had come to collect humanitarian aid and then at the rescuers and police officers who arrived at the scene. Some of the bodies have not yet been identified, he said, and the operation was continuing "under the constant threat of new Russian strikes." Ukraine's State Emergency Service and the Zaporizhzhia Regional Military Administration both reposted his statement. Earlier Wednesday, the emergency service and the regional administration had each put the toll at 37 in their own Telegram updates, and neither had published a separate count above 37 as of this update.

Russia's Defense Ministry said the attack targeted Ukrainian military units around Komyshuvakha and two other settlements and killed up to 25 Ukrainian servicemen, Reuters reported in a story carried by NBC News. GROKsiNEWS.com could not independently verify claims from either side.

The emergency service said in a Telegram update that dog-handling teams and a unit of its state mine-rescue squad were still working at the scene and that search and rescue operations were continuing. The Zaporizhzhia Regional Military Administration also put the toll at 37 in a Telegram post Wednesday morning.

The official count has climbed steadily since the attack. The regional administration reported 31 dead on Tuesday morning and still gave that figure at a coordination meeting Tuesday afternoon, when it said 20 of the dead had not yet been identified. Later Tuesday, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in Berlin that 33 people had been killed, Agence France-Presse reported.

The regional administration has said Russia carried out at least nine strikes on the village while people were receiving humanitarian aid, first dropping FAB-500 guided bombs and then FAB-3000 bombs. After a direct hit, it said, the concrete structure of the underground space collapsed with civilians inside. The administration later said the space was being used as a humanitarian aid distribution point, and that an underground school that once operated there had stopped holding classes in February.

The administration said Tuesday that Russia had stepped up drone attacks on the site, forcing rescuers to halt search work repeatedly. It said five wounded people were receiving medical care, and that the regional budget would cover funerals for the dead and pay the injured up to 50,000 hryvnias each.

The region is observing three days of mourning, Nov. 3 to 5. Two rescuers and four police officers were among the dead, the regional administration said earlier.

Barrage aimed at energy

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Russia launched 289 attack drones, 17 ballistic missiles and 59 cruise missiles overnight into Tuesday, Nov. 3, mainly at power generation and substations, and that emergency power cuts were underway in many cities and communities.

Zelenskyy linked the timing to the U.S. midterm elections. "It is very telling that all this is happening on the day of the American elections to Congress," he said. "The Russians think America will not notice this signal of theirs. But this terror must be noticed and stopped."

Ukraine's air force said that, as of 9 a.m. Kyiv time (2 a.m. ET), air defenses had shot down or jammed 309 targets: three ballistic missiles, 49 cruise missiles and 257 drones. It said missiles and drones hit 23 locations and that debris fell at 14 more.

Artem Nekrasov, Ukraine's first deputy energy minister, said energy facilities were hit in 10 regions, and that Russia had targeted energy infrastructure more than 20 times over the past day. He said the most difficult situation was in the Vinnytsia, Zhytomyr and Kharkiv regions. Ukrenergo, the national grid operator, said hourly outages for all consumers would apply in parts of the country through the end of the day.

Russia's Defense Ministry said its forces had carried out a "massive strike" on energy facilities in the Vinnytsia, Dnipropetrovsk and Kharkiv regions that it said supply Ukraine's military industry and armed forces, naming the Ladyzhyn, Kryvyi Rih and Prydniprovska thermal power plants, as well as port facilities in the Odesa region. The ministry separately said it had shot down 856 Ukrainian drones over Russia and occupied Crimea overnight. GROKsiNEWS.com could not independently verify claims from either side.

Hospitals hit in Kharkiv and Dnipro

In Kharkiv, a strike early Tuesday hit a passage between buildings of a medical facility in the Nemyshlianskyi district, regional Gov. Oleh Syniehubov said. He put the number of injured at 62 and said 226 patients were being moved to other hospitals. Zelenskyy, in a separate statement, said 73 people were hurt in what he called a strike on a city clinical hospital, and that its cardiology department was damaged. Officials have not reported any deaths from the hospital strike.

In Dnipro, a hospice was destroyed and about 50 terminally ill patients, the oldest 90, were moved to another hospital, Mayor Borys Filatov said, according to the Kyiv Independent. Oleksandr Hanzha, head of the Dnipropetrovsk Regional Military Administration, said Tuesday that the morning attack on the city killed two people and wounded 20, and that rescuers had finished their search at the site.