Russian strikes on aid centre, hospice and hospital kill at least 38 civilians across Ukraine

Russian strikes on Ukraine, including attacks on an aid centre, a hospice and a hospital, have killed at least 38 civilians and injured scores of others across the country over the last 24 hours. At least 33 people are known to have died in a glide bomb attack in the southern Zaporizhzhia region on Monday night. President Volodymyr Zelensky said the number of victims was set to rise, as more than 50 people could be trapped under the rubble. He called the strike on Komyshuvakha village "one of the largest mass killings committed by Russia during this war". Nine 3,000kg aerial bombs hit Komyshuvakha as residents were gathering to receive humanitarian aid at a distribution centre set up in a school building, authorities said. Local media reported that when the attack began, people took refuge underground, but the roof collapsed, trapping many underneath. "The scale of the tragedy is difficult to comprehend," regional head Mykhailo Semikin said. Russia's defence ministry said the attack had targeted Ukrainian military units and killed 25 servicemen. However, the BBC's Russian defence correspondent Ilya Abishev reported there was no credible evidence that the site was being used by the Ukrainian military and no major military or industrial facilities in the settlement. The village lies to the south-east of the city of Zaporizhzhia, which has come under constant Russian bombardment, and is of high military importance as part of Ukraine's defensive and transport network on the approaches to the regional capital. The UN's human rights monitoring mission said the distribution of humanitarian aid at the local school had been highly publicised and that the attack "seems to have violated the most fundamental principles of international humanitarian law". Zelensky said Ukraine had proposed to extend and expand last week's ceasefire in the Kherson region, which allowed people from the frontline Russian-occupied town of Oleshky to evacuate. The attack on the aid centre in Komyshuvakha was Moscow's response, he said. Elsewhere, a hospice in the central city of Dnipro was destroyed by a Russian missile on Monday night, forcing nearly 50 terminally ill patients, the oldest aged 90, to be transferred to other facilities. Mayor Boris Filatov posted photos on Telegram showing elderly people in their beds in a room with blown-out windows and rubble on the floors. "I realise that I am violating ethics," he wrote. "I want as many people as possible to see these photos. Especially politicians and diplomats. Especially abroad. These are elderly, terminally ill people. This is a Russian missile." A separate strike in Dnipro killed two people and wounded 18 others, while five people were killed in aerial bomb and drone strikes on the eastern Donetsk region. In the north-eastern city of Kharkiv, a hospital was hit and 73 people were wounded, most of them elderly patients, according to Zelensky. Russia also struck energy infrastructure in nine regions, affecting water and heating. The water supply in Kyiv was entirely cut off due to attacks and damage to the capital's energy infrastructure, the main supplier Kyivvodokanal said. The entire metro network was suspended on Tuesday, and Mayor Vitali Klitschko said the situation surrounding the city's power supply was becoming "very difficult". As Ukraine counted its dead, the Kremlin announced it would take part in three-way peace talks with Ukraine brokered by the US in Abu Dhabi on 10-11 November, the first trilateral meeting since February. Since then, Russia and the US have engaged more directly, with US President Donald Trump announcing a deal to import Russian diesel. Speaking to reporters in Berlin on Tuesday, Zelensky said it was important for Russia to engage seriously in negotiations on a ceasefire and a peaceful settlement, but that he had so far seen no indication of that being the case. Several rounds of ceasefire talks late last year yielded no results, and Russian officials have generally refused to budge from Moscow's demand of effective Ukrainian surrender. US First Lady Melania Trump, credited with brokering last week's truce in Oleshky, is set to host representatives of Russia and Ukraine at the White House on Thursday, though no details were given on who would attend. The UN said last month that civilian casualties in Ukraine had reached a "record level" as Russian forces resumed systematic attacks on energy infrastructure. Russia launched its full-scale invasion in February 2022, and while its advances on the front line have stalled, attacks on Ukrainian cities have intensified with large numbers of missiles and drones. Ukraine faces a critical air defence shortage due to stalled Western weapons deliveries and a lack of American Patriot interceptor missiles. In Berlin, Zelensky acknowledged that although the front line was stable, "the situation in the air was not as positive, particularly when it comes to our air defence capabilities and the protection of our civilian population".