Kyiv — The death toll from a Russian missile strike on a Ukrainian aid distribution center climbed to 40, President Zelenskyy said in a Wednesday post on social media. Zelenskyy said Russia dropped nine bombs on an old school being used to distribute humanitarian aid in Ukraine’s southeast Zaporizhzhia region on Monday.
“They first struck people who had come to receive humanitarian aid, and then first responders and police officers who arrived at the scene,” Zelenskyy wrote, noting that rescue efforts were still ongoing Wednesday afternoon, and “more than 30 people may still be under the rubble.”
Russia’s Defense Ministry said a strike in the area targeted Ukraine’s military, and it claimed that as many as 25 Ukrainian service members were killed. Russia denies deliberately targeting civilians, despite strikes regularly hitting apartment buildings and other civilian infrastructure.
On Tuesday, Russia launched one of its largest attacks of the year on Ukrainian energy infrastructure, hitting facilities in 10 different regions, according to Ukraine’s energy ministry.
The attacks affected the Ukrainian capital’s water supply, with Kyiv residents losing running water in their homes for more than 16 hours. Kyivvodokanal, the city’s water utility, said water supply and sewage pumping stations in Kyiv resumed operations on Wednesday afternoon.
Russian and Ukrainian representatives will visit the White House Friday to meet with Melania Trump, after the first lady brokered a temporary ceasefire last week to allow for civilian evacuations and humanitarian aid to move into Oleshky, a Russian-occupied city in southern Ukraine, officials in both Kyiv and Moscow said.
Ukrainian Human Rights Commissioner Dmytro Lubinets and Davyd Arakhamiia, the leader of Zelenskyy’s parliamentary faction, will attend the meeting, according to Ukrainian newspaper Ukrinform.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Russian envoy Kirill Dmitriev and Commissioner for Human Rights Yana Lantratova planned to represent Russia at the meeting, but that visa complications could affect their travel.
Zelenskyy announced Wednesday that the U.S. first lady was to receive Ukraine’s highest award for women, the Order of Princess Olga, 1st Class, for her role in brokering the limited ceasefire.
He also promised a Ukrainian response to the Russian attack on the Zaporizhzhia aid center, and a day after Democrats took control of both houses of the U.S. Congress, he renewed his plea for more missile interceptors and other key military support.
“Unfortunately, there has been very little reaction from the world to this insane attack. But it, like thousands upon thousands of other war crimes Russia has committed against Ukraine and Ukrainians, demands a strong response,” Zelenskyy wrote on X. “Evil always goes further if it is left unanswered. We count on a response – Ukraine needs air defense support right now. I am grateful to the partners who are taking such steps.”