Published on: 2026-11-03
Source: United Nations – United Nations –
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November 3, 2026 Peace and Security
The UN Coordinator for Humanitarian Affairs in Ukraine, Matthias Schmale, condemned the deadly Russian airstrikes on the village of Kamyshevaha in the Zaporizhzhia region, which resulted in dozens of civilian casualties and injuries. According to him, on the morning of November 2, the armed forces of the Russian Federation carried out airstrikes on a local school where humanitarian aid was being distributed.
According to data from local authorities, cited by the Monitoring Mission on Human Rights in Ukraine, at least 31 civilians have died and five more were injured. The search and rescue operation continues – there may still be people under the rubble. Most of the dead are local residents who came for help, as well as employees of the local administration.
Schmale added that subsequent strikes on the same location took the lives of two rescuers and four police officers who arrived to assist after the first attack. The strikes also hit a nearby shelter.
“People living near the front line already endure enormous hardships. The very possibility of dying while trying to get life-saving aid or shelter is terrifying,” Schmalle said. He emphasized that civilians seeking help and rescuers must never be targeted.
Powerful aerial bombs
As noted by the UN Monitoring Mission, the local authorities announced the distribution of aid the day before, posting information on social media.
“Dozens of people were killed when civilians gathered to receive humanitarian aid in Kamyshevakha — the time and place of distribution were widely known,” said the head of the mission, Danielle Bell. “Either the Russian armed forces were aware that humanitarian aid was being distributed there, or they did not take the most basic steps to find out what was happening in the village they were going to attack. In any case, this strike apparently violated the most fundamental principles of international humanitarian law.”
According to local authorities, nine aerial bombs hit the village in two waves. Mission staff examined photo and video recordings of the strike’s aftermath. In their assessment, the nature of the destruction corresponds to the use of powerful aerial bombs. The mission continues to determine the exact number of victims.
Guided aerial bombs are dropped from military aircraft. Thanks to their wings and sometimes guidance systems, they can travel up to 100 kilometers. Such bombs carry hundreds of kilograms of explosives, and in populated areas, even a single hit can destroy a building, the mission notes. The risk of casualties is especially high during repeated strikes when local residents and rescuers gather at the site of the first incident. Before the strike on Kamyshevakha, according to the mission, guided aerial bombs killed at least 478 civilians and injured 2,667 in 2026 – that is 16 percent of all confirmed civilian casualties.
This is not the first attack on a aid distribution point in the settlement, the mission notes. On June 15, 2026, a short-range drone strike injured four civilians there, after which the organization distributing aid suspended operations in Kamyshevakha for safety reasons.
Lessons in the bomb shelter
Meanwhile, according to the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), air raid alarms are increasingly interrupting children’s education across Ukraine. Since the beginning of the 2026–2027 school year, as of October 20, children have spent an average of 34 hours – or more than 13 percent – of their learning time under air raid alarms.
“In September and October 2026, air raid alarms sounded on almost two-thirds of school days, whereas in the same period in 2025, it was about one-third,” UNICEF representative Ricardo Pires said at a briefing in Geneva. The average duration of alarms during lessons nearly doubled.
In Kyiv, the number of air raid alerts during school hours increased from 12 in September 2025 to 71 in September 2026. In the Dnipropetrovsk, Kirovohrad, and Kharkiv regions, children spent more than 60 hours of school time in alert mode—about a quarter of all lessons. This affected more than 560 thousand children.
Pires quoted the words of 15-year-old Katya from the Mykolaiv region: “I just returned to face-to-face classes, but for most of the school day we still spend time in a shelter because of air raid alerts. Under such conditions, it’s hard to concentrate and study properly.”
In addition, the UN has confirmed nearly 2,000 attacks on educational institutions within Ukraine, including about 270 in 2026 alone. “Children must be protected from attacks – every child has the right to learn in safety,” emphasized Pires.
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