Russian attack on humanitarian aid point kills seven, Ukraine says

 A Russian attack on a humanitarian aid distribution point in southeastern Ukraine killed seven people, emergency services said on Monday, and two people were killed by Russian shelling in the east.

Yuriy Malashko, governor of Zaporizhzhia region, said a guided aviation bomb was used in Sunday’s attack on a school building being used to distribute aid in the small town of Orikhiv.

Ukrainian emergency services said three bodies were retrieved from under rubble on Monday, bringing the death toll to seven. Rescue and recovery operations were now complete.

Malashko said 11 people wounded in the attack were being treated in hospital. The General Prosecutor’s office said the incident was being investigated as a war crime.

The prosecutor’s office said that two people had been killed and three wounded on Monday in Russian shelling of the village of Hostre and the city of Avdiivka in the Donetsk region.

Reuters could not independently verify the reports. Russia, which began its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, denies deliberately targeting civilians.

Ukraine‘s military is conducting a counteroffensive to try to retake Russian-occupied territory in the Zaporizhzhia region.