At least 31 people have been killed and more than 45 remain missing after a Russian strike hit an aid centre and shelter in southern Ukraine, as rescue workers continued searching the rubble for survivors, officials said Tuesday.
Emergency workers and volunteers were clearing debris at the devastated site in Komyshuvakha village in the Zaporizhzhia region, where bodies were recovered from the wreckage.
“The scale of the tragedy is terrifying,” Mykhailo Semikin, acting head of the regional military administration, said in an online post, describing it as one of the region's worst civilian disasters since Russia launched its full-scale invasion.
The attack came as Ukraine prepared for another round of US-mediated peace negotiations next week. Russia also launched a massive overnight barrage targeting energy facilities and other sites across the country, damaging hospitals and injuring scores of people.
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Russia fired 289 attack drones, 17 ballistic missiles and 59 cruise missiles across nine regions, triggering emergency power cuts.
He urged the United States and its allies to help Ukraine strengthen its air defences, warning that Russia would continue its attacks unless stopped.
Three days of mourning were declared in Zaporizhzhia following Monday's strike, which involved Russian bunker-busting bombs containing up to nearly 1.5 tonnes of explosives.
The dead included four police officers and two rescue workers, Semikin said. At least five others were injured.
In the northeastern Kharkiv region, a combined missile and drone attack wounded at least 62 people, local authorities said.
A medical facility in the Nemyshlianskyi district was damaged, while windows in four apartment buildings were shattered and several vehicles hit. More than 200 patients were moved to other medical facilities, regional military administration head Oleh Syniehubov said.
In the Dnipro area, rescuers pulled a woman alive from the rubble on Tuesday morning after a Russian attack killed one person and injured 17 others. The strike damaged an outpatient clinic and a hospital, forcing patients to be transferred elsewhere, regional official Oleksandr Hanzha said.
Meanwhile, Russia continued attacking Ukraine's energy infrastructure ahead of winter. The Ukrainian energy ministry said 20 strikes were carried out in 10 regions overnight, causing extensive damage and power outages.
Power utility DTEK said three of its power plants had suspended operations following heavy damage. No injuries were reported.
Russia's Defence Ministry, meanwhile, said its forces shot down 856 Ukrainian drones overnight. Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said 493 drones had been directed towards the Russian capital.
A Ukrainian drone attack wounded two employees at an oil refinery in the Russian city of Yaroslavl and damaged its infrastructure, regional Governor Mikhail Yevrayev said.
Rolling power cuts have also been introduced in parts of Russian-occupied Crimea following attacks on energy facilities, Moscow-installed officials said.
Zelenskyy travelled to Germany on Tuesday for consultations with European leaders ahead of US-mediated negotiations scheduled for November 10-11 in Abu Dhabi.
US President Donald Trump's special envoy Steve Witkoff confirmed the dates, saying the discussions would focus on postwar security arrangements, de-escalation and humanitarian issues.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov confirmed that a Russian delegation would attend the talks.
Russia agreed last month to resume three-way negotiations with Washington and Kyiv aimed at ending the war, marking the first such talks since February.
The European Commission is also scheduled to host a meeting on Wednesday with officials from France, Germany, the United Kingdom, the European Union, NATO, Ukraine, the United States and the World Bank to discuss Ukraine's postwar reconstruction.