Dozens of people were killed when Russia dropped at least nine bombs on a school building in southeastern Ukraine where they had taken shelter, President Volodymyr Zelensky said Tuesday, describing it as “one of the deadliest attacks of this war.”
At least 33 people have been confirmed dead and another 50 are still unaccounted for after the attack on the building in Komyshuvakha in the Zaporizhzhia region, which local governor Mykhailo Semikin said was being used as a shelter and a humanitarian aid distribution center. CNN reported.
Semikin said they were in a newly-built, EU-funded reinforced basement designed to withstand most strikes, but the massive force of the bombs caused the concrete structure to collapse and a fire broke out.
The shelter was built last year in an effort to keep classes going during wartime, but many civilians have since left as the fighting got closer to the village, and it is not currently used as a school. Instead, local authorities are using it as an administrative center and humanitarian hub.
