Death toll hits 50 after Russian strike on Ukrainian aid site, dozens remain missing

The death toll from a Russian bombing of an aid distribution point in Ukraine’s southeastern Zaporizhzhia region on Monday has risen to 40, ⁠with dozens still missing, officials said, in one of the deadliest strikes on civilians this year.

The attack came a day after a brief U.S.-brokered local ceasefire expired and less than a week before the United States is due to bring together Ukrainian and Russian delegations in Abu Dhabi for talks on ending the war, now in its fifth year.

Reuters footage on Wednesday showed men in military fatigues loading bodies in white plastic bags into the back of a ⁠van in the village of Komyshuvakha, which was struck multiple times.

Excavators were ​digging ⁠up earth near a huge blast crater while rescue workers searched underground for bodies.

Ivan Fedorov, the co-head of the Zaporizhzhia Regional Defense Council, wrote on Telegram that 59 people were missing.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said Russian forces first dropped aerial ⁠bombs on an underground school building being used as a distribution point as people arrived to collect aid, then struck the ​shelter with ⁠more bombs.

Classes have long since been suspended at the ‌school because of its proximity to the…

Original source: https://www.nbcnews.com/world