Russia bombs an aid queue and Kyiv's power, days before talks in Abu Dhabi
Glide bombs killed at least 55 people at a school in Komyshuvakha where aid was handed out, and a strike on Friday night hit the substations that carry nuclear power to Kyiv. Russia's negotiators meet America's and Ukraine's on Tuesday.
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On Monday mornings the school in Komyshuvakha, a village in Ukraine's Zaporizhzhia region about 20km from the front line, was where people came for food parcels. The distribution on Monday 2nd November had been announced the day before, on a local channel with nearly 5,000 subscribers, for 10am to midday.1
Russian aircraft dropped glide bombs on the school, then on its underground shelter, where people had run for cover. Glide bombs are old free-fall bombs fitted with wings and guidance, which let a jet release them tens of kilometres away.1 President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said one bomb was followed by "a double-tap strike with nine more bombs".2 Two rescuers and four police officers who came to help were among the dead.3
The count rose all week as rescuers dug: 33 on Tuesday,2 53 on Friday,4 and 55 by early Saturday, with dozens of people still missing.5 The Kyiv Independent calls it the deadliest Russian attack on the Zaporizhzhia region since the full-scale invasion began.6
What each side said
Russia's Defence Ministry said it had struck Ukrainian military units in the area, killing "up to 25" soldiers. It gave no evidence.6 The United Nations' human rights monitoring mission in Ukraine said the time and place of the distribution had been well publicised. "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 they were planning to attack," said its head, Danielle Bell. "In either case, this attack seems to have violated the most fundamental principles of international humanitarian law."1
Zelenskyy said the second wave had been "specifically targeting the shelter where people were taking cover", and that Russia was "counting on further killings".2
A night aimed at Kyiv
Late on Friday Zelenskyy warned that a large attack on energy, bridges and civilian targets was coming. Overnight, Russia fired 36 ballistic missiles, all at Kyiv and its region, and 172 drones; Ukraine's air force says it shot down 4 of the missiles and 149 of the drones. Ballistic missiles fall too fast for most air defences.7
They hit substations that carry electricity from the Rivne and Khmelnytskyi nuclear power stations to Kyiv and central Ukraine, and the Northern Bridge across the Dnipro, which was closed.7 One person was killed in the Kyiv region, and Zelenskyy said nine were injured across the country.5 "The situation with the capital's energy supply is extremely difficult, affecting the city's heating and water supply systems," said Kyiv's mayor, Vitali Klitschko.5 Russia said it had aimed at military and industrial targets, including the bridge.5
"Russia is preparing for the trilateral talks by launching ballistic missiles at Ukrainian critical infrastructure," Zelenskyy said.7
The talks
Those talks are the next round of three-way negotiations between the United States, Russia and Ukraine, which Russia agreed to resume in October. On Tuesday the Kremlin confirmed that its delegation would be in Abu Dhabi on 10th and 11th November, led again by Vladimir Medinsky; the American envoy, Steve Witkoff, said they would cover security arrangements after the war, de-escalation and humanitarian issues.8 On Friday President Vladimir Putin briefed his negotiators at a meeting of his Security Council: "trilateral talks are to begin in the United Arab Emirates next Tuesday," he said.9 Nothing of substance has been agreed. The last round, in Geneva, was in February.5
The one recent agreement was small. A six-day truce around Oleshky, an occupied town on the Dnipro, ended on 1st November after nearly 800 people were evacuated. On Thursday Melania Trump, whom the White House credits with brokering it, hosted Russian and Ukrainian officials to mark it, and President Donald Trump then met the Kremlin envoy Kirill Dmitriev privately, without saying what they discussed.10
Zelenskyy said the order matters: "first, we have to discuss how to end this war", then Ukraine's security, and only then the wider question of security between Europe and Russia. "We do not want 'Yalta 2.0'," he said, recalling the 1945 conference at which the wartime allies divided Europe.11
Where it stands
Washington's politics changed this week too. From January Democrats will control Congress, and "the incoming Democratic Congress will be more supportive of Ukraine than the Trump administration has been," James Lindsay of the Council on Foreign Relations told France 24, though Congress "cannot dictate the terms of the negotiations".12 On Tuesday the negotiators meet in Abu Dhabi. In Komyshuvakha, the search goes on.