Russian bombs kill 26 at Ukrainian aid centre; US to host Abu Dhabi talks next week

Russian bombs killed 26 people at a school used as an aid distribution point and at a nearby shelter in the village of Komyshuvakha in Ukraine's Zaporizhzhia region on Monday, Ukrainian officials said, according to AP. On the same day, the US envoy Steve Witkoff announced that the United States would bring Russian and Ukrainian delegations together in Abu Dhabi for talks, the first US-mediated round since February.

Figures from Ukrainian officials have varied. Ukraine's emergency services agency first put the death toll at 24, with five injured, Al Jazeera reported; AP later reported 26 dead, citing Ukrainian officials. Mykhailo Semikin, a regional official, said a police officer and two emergency service rescuers were among the dead and that 27 people were considered missing, while AP put the number missing at about 20 and said the toll could rise. None of the figures could be independently verified.

What Ukraine says happened

President Volodymyr Zelensky said the first air strike hit the school, and that "there was a repeat strike with nine more bombs, directly on the shelter where people were gathered". He said Russian forces must have known that residents who had stayed in Komyshuvakha received aid at the site every week, and called the attack proof that Russia "does not want any kind of de-escalation".

Russia's defence ministry did not comment on the Komyshuvakha strike in reports seen by The Declaration. On Monday it said its forces had shot down 212 Ukrainian drones overnight. Moscow says it does not target civilians.

Drone attacks also injured at least 17 people elsewhere in Ukraine on Monday, including 12 in Kharkiv region and five in Odesa, according to AP and Al Jazeera. The strike came a day after a six-day local truce in Kherson region ended. The truce had allowed nearly 800 people to be evacuated from Russian-occupied Oleshky.

In his evening address, Zelensky said Ukrainian intelligence had found that Russia was preparing another large-scale attack on energy and logistics infrastructure, and suggested it could be timed for the US midterm elections, the Kyiv Post reported. "Russia is preparing a new massive attack on our country," he said, citing difficulties with air defence and a shortage of Patriot interceptor missiles, and urged the US and its allies to further restrict Russia's oil and gas revenues.

Talks in Abu Dhabi

Witkoff wrote on X that the US would "bring together delegations from Ukraine and Russia in Abu Dhabi", to discuss "post-war security agreements, de-escalation, humanitarian measures, and ending the war", according to the Australian news agency AAP. The Kyiv Post reported that the talks are scheduled for 10 and 11 November. Witkoff and Jared Kushner are expected to represent the US; the heads of the Russian and Ukrainian delegations have not been named.

According to AAP, Russian President Vladimir Putin agreed to the new three-way round after meeting Witkoff in St Petersburg about two weeks ago. The last US-mediated talks were held in February, before the US and Israel went to war with Iran. Separate meetings on security guarantees for Ukraine, with France, Germany, the UK, the EU and NATO, are planned in Brussels later in the same week, AAP said.

Zelensky said last week that he was ready to meet Putin in Türkiye, and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has offered to help restart talks. The Kremlin has not publicly set out its terms for the Abu Dhabi round.

Why it matters for India

India has called throughout the war for dialogue and diplomacy, and has kept buying Russian crude oil, which has made it a target of Western pressure over Russia's energy revenues. Any agreement that eases sanctions or the war's pressure on energy and grain markets would matter for Indian fuel and food prices; a new wave of Russian strikes on Ukrainian energy, and Ukrainian strikes on Russian refineries, would keep those markets tight.

What happens next

Ukrainian rescuers are still searching the site in Komyshuvakha, and the death toll may change. The Abu Dhabi talks are due on 10-11 November, followed by the Brussels meetings on security guarantees.