Komyshuvakha Death Toll Reaches 40, Zelensky Says About 30 May Still Be Buried

Since Russian guided bombs hit a former school and nearby shelter in Komyshuvakha on Nov. 2, the confirmed death toll has risen from 33 to 40, Zelensky said today, Nov. 4.

He said about 30 more people could still be buried. Zelensky's estimate Tuesday was more than 50 people trapped.

Search crews are working under threat. Mykhailo Semikin, acting head of the Zaporizhzhia regional military administration, said Russian drones are hampering the hunt for victims, now in its third day.

Zelensky: "Very little reaction from the world"

Zelensky posted his update on X and used it to press for a harsher international response.

"Unfortunately, there has been very little reaction from the world to this insane attack," he wrote. "But it, like thousands upon thousands of other war crimes Russia has committed against Ukraine and Ukrainians, demands a strong response. Evil always goes further if it is left unanswered."

According to Zelensky, the village's school had stopped holding classes because it sits so close to the front. The building was used to hand out humanitarian aid every Monday. He said a first wave of bombs hit as people arrived, followed by nine more bombs on the shelter where they had taken cover.

Semikin said the weapons were FAB-3000 guided bombs. Among the dead are four police officers and two State Emergency Service rescuers, Denys Konovalenko and Oleksii Sushchevskyi, both 44. Semikin declared Nov. 3-5 days of mourning in the region.

Moscow says it hit soldiers

Russia's Defense Ministry gives a different account. It said the strike targeted Ukrainian military units around Komyshuvakha and two other Zaporizhzhia settlements. It claimed up to 25 Ukrainian servicemen were killed, plus 15 vehicles and an electronic warfare station destroyed.

Russia and Ukraine both deny deliberately targeting civilians.

The BBC's Russian defence correspondent, Ilya Abishev, reported no credible evidence the site was used by the Ukrainian military, and no major military or industrial facilities in the village. He did note that Komyshuvakha has high military importance as part of Ukraine's defensive and transport network on the approaches to the city of Zaporizhzhia.

The UN human rights monitoring mission said the aid distribution had been highly publicized. Mission head Danielle Bell said: "Either the Russian armed forces knew that there was a humanitarian distribution taking place, or they failed to take the most basic steps to find out what was happening in this village."

Ukrainian Prime Minister Serhii Koretskyi said there was "no doubt whatsoever" that the Russians knew people gathered there every week for aid.

Kyiv loses power and water

Strikes continued elsewhere. Russian attacks on infrastructure knocked out power and water for hours Wednesday across Kyiv and surrounding regions. Residents were told to use public drinking fountains until service returned, and hastily opened emergency centers offered hot tea and phone charging.

Ukraine's air force said Russia launched 310 drones overnight, including 81 jet-powered ones. It said it downed or suppressed 272.

The Komyshuvakha attack came amid a wider 24-hour wave. Ukrainian officials reported strikes on a hospital in Kharkiv, where Zelensky said 73 people were wounded, most of them elderly patients, and on a hospice in Dnipro, where nearly 50 terminally ill patients had to be moved.

Diplomacy: Brussels today, Abu Dhabi next week

Officials from the United States, Germany, France, Britain, NATO and the European Union are meeting today at the European Commission in Brussels. The talks are expected to run into Thursday and to cover security arrangements for postwar Ukraine, reconstruction and what organizers call "economic opportunities" from peace.

EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said the meeting would address European demands for Russian concessions. She said earlier talks had focused only on "what Ukraine should give away or what concessions they should make."

U.S., Ukrainian and Russian negotiators are scheduled to meet in Abu Dhabi on Nov. 10-11. Zelensky, the Kremlin and Washington have all confirmed it. It would be the first three-way meeting since February.

Zelensky said in Berlin that he hopes the format opens the way to a leaders-level meeting with Vladimir Putin, who has repeatedly refused face-to-face talks. German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said he sees no sign Russia is engaging seriously: "It is important that Russia finally and seriously engages in negotiations about a ceasefire and a subsequent peace agreement. I do not see that happening so far."

The strike also followed a several-day ceasefire in the Kherson region that let people leave the Russian-occupied town of Oleshky. Zelensky said Ukraine had proposed extending and expanding it, and called the Komyshuvakha attack Moscow's response.

Ukrainian officials have not given a final figure for how many people remain under the rubble, and the toll is still rising as crews dig under drone threat.