ZAPORIZHZHIA, Ukraine — A Russian drone struck emergency workers on rescue missions in southern Ukraine on Sunday, hitting a former school and nearby shelter that had been earlier blasted by multiple Russian guided bombs as residents waited for humanitarian aid, authorities said.
No one was injured in Sunday’s strike on the village of Komyshuvakha, but specialized rescue equipment was damaged, according to Ukraine’s State Emergency Service.
Ukraine said Monday’s attack on the same location killed at least 55 people, near the front line in the Zaporizhzhia region.
As of Sunday afternoon, 45 people were listed as missing, according to the acting head of the regional military administration, Mykhailo Semikin. Many of the bodies recovered have not been identified and DNA analysis is ongoing.
Ukraine has routinely accused Russia of conducting multiple strikes at the same site in quick succession to target emergency crews responding to the initial attack.
A community bids farewell
On Saturday, police officers and relatives gathered in Zaporizhzhia for a farewell ceremony for six officers killed in Russian strikes on Komyshuvakha, including four who died near the former school.
Rain fell as families wept beside the coffins, and officers held portraits of their fallen colleagues.
“They used every skill at their disposal to protect themselves. But when the enemy deliberately gathered civilians in one place and then launched strikes against them, no skills could have helped,” said Andrii Khomenko, a police lieutenant colonel who had worked alongside the victims.
The community also said goodbye to three residents among the dead. Among those mourning was Yurii Karapetian, whose wife, Natalia, was killed. He said she was distributing bread to those in the shelter when the Russian bombs struck.
“This pain, I would say, is unbearable,” he said, and urged the international community to act.
“The whole world must understand that if [the Russians] are not stopped, they will not stop. They will not stop at Ukraine. They will not stop anywhere,” he said.
President Volodymyr Zelensky in a post on X on Sunday called the attack on emergency crews in Komyshuvakha “absolute cynicism and brutality.”
France to join U.S.-mediated peace talks
French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot said Sunday that France and other European representatives would participate in the U.S.-mediated talks between Russia and Ukraine in Abu Dhabi on Tuesday and Wednesday.
“France will be there and will ensure that Europe’s voice is heard,” Barrot told RTL radio. He did not specify who would represent France, or whether European officials would participate directly in negotiations.
The talks were previously presented as a trilateral meeting between Washington, Moscow and Kyiv, with President Trump predicting a “very big” deal with Russia that would extend beyond Ukraine to “all of Europe.” This raised concerns that European countries might be sidelined in negotiations over their own security.
Zelensky calls for sanctions
Russian strikes in Ukraine’s Dnipropetrovsk region have left more than 600,000 people without power, Zelensky wrote on X on Sunday. Russia’s Defense Ministry claimed its forces had struck an electrical substation that powered Ukrainian “military-industrial enterprises.” Other regions in Ukraine also faced outages.
Russia launched 115 missiles, 1,900 guided aerial bombs and more than 3,000 drones against Ukraine in the last week, Zelensky said on X. Many of the missiles had been produced this year, he added, calling on Ukraine’s partners to sanction entities involved in their production.
“If the world does not have enough anti-ballistic capabilities to protect Ukrainian skies, then the missiles must be stopped on the production lines,” he said.
Nuclear plant loses power supply
The Russian-controlled Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant, the largest in Europe, has lost its external power supply after a damaged power line was disconnected for safety, the plant’s management reported Sunday.
It said the plant was powered by backup diesel generators since an automatic protection system shut down the damaged Ferosplavna line. Ukraine’s state nuclear operator, Energoatom, also reported Sunday that the plant was relying on generators.
The plant went offline soon after being captured by Russia early in the war, but needs power to keep essential cooling systems running. Its external power supply has periodically been severed, raising fears of a nuclear accident in case of protracted outages, as Moscow and Kyiv blamed each other for strikes that damaged nearby power lines.
Russia and Ukraine exchange drone strikes
Russia launched 164 drones across Ukraine overnight into Sunday, 137 of which were shot down, the Ukrainian air force said. Hours later, one person was killed and three others injured as Russian forces struck a residential neighborhood in Dnipro, according to local administration head Oleksandr Hanzha.
Russia’s Defense Ministry said Sunday that its forces destroyed 142 Ukrainian drones during the night, including over Russia, Russian-occupied areas of Ukraine and the Azov Sea.
Stepanenko writes for the Associated Press. AP writer Thomas Adamson in Paris contributed to this report.
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