Fatal Russia Strike on Ukraine Aid Site11/03 06:30

   The death toll from a Russian attack in southern Ukraine on a site where 
people had gathered to receive humanitarian aid rose to 31 on Tuesday, with 
dozens of people still missing, as a wave of overnight strikes targeted power 
plants across the country, damaged hospitals and wounded scores of people.

   KYIV, Ukraine (AP) -- The death toll from a Russian attack in southern 
Ukraine on a site where people had gathered to receive humanitarian aid rose to 
31 on Tuesday, with dozens of people still missing, as a wave of overnight 
strikes targeted power plants across the country, damaged hospitals and wounded 
scores of people.

   Teams of rescuers and volunteers continued to search the cratered blast site 
of a destroyed aid facility and shelter in Komyushuvakha, a village in 
Ukraine's southern Zaporizhzhia region, hoping to find more than 45 missing 
residents alive under the rubble. Instead, more bodies were pulled out and 
carried away in white plastic sheeting.

   "The scale of the tragedy is terrifying," Mykhailo Semikin, acting head of 
the region's military administration, wrote in an online post. "This is one of 
the worst tragedies in terms of the number of civilian victims in our region 
since the start of the full-scale war."

   Russia launched 289 attack drones, 17 ballistic missiles and 59 cruise 
missiles across nine regions, triggering emergency power cuts, President 
Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in an online post that noted the barrage coincided 
with U.S. elections.

   "The Russians think America won't notice this signal of theirs," he said. 
"But we need to notice and stop such terror. We need to help Ukraine defend its 
skies; otherwise, Russia will never stop its missile strikes."

   Three days of mourning were declared in Zaporizhzhia where Russian 
bunker-busting bombs, filled with nearly 1.5 tons of explosives, were used in 
Monday's attack.

   The dead included four police officers and two rescue workers, Semikin said 
Tuesday. At least five people were hurt.

   In the northeast region of Kharkiv, a combined Russian missile and drone 
attack wounded at least 62 people, local authorities said.

   A strike damaged a medical facility in the Nemyshlianskyi district, 
shattered windows in four apartment buildings and damaged cars. More than 200 
patients were transferred to other medical facilities, head of the regional 
military administration Oleh Syniehubov said.

   In the Dnipro area, rescuers pulled a woman alive from the rubble Tuesday 
morning, after a Russian attack killed one person and wounded 17, local 
authorities said.

   The attack damaged an outpatient clinic and a hospital. Patients were 
transferred to other hospitals, Oleksandr Hanzha, head of the regional military 
administration, said.

   Moscow kept up its nightly attacks on power plants and energy infrastructure 
ahead of winter, causing extensive damage and electricity outages as it carried 
out 20 strikes in 10 regions overnight, Ukraine's energy ministry said.

   Ukrainian power utility DTEK said three of its power plants halted 
operations after significant damage from intense attacks. No injuries were 
reported.

   Russia's Ministry of Defense said Tuesday that it had shot down 856 
Ukrainian drones overnight. Moscow mayor Sergei Sobyanin said 493 drones were 
fired toward the Russian capital.

   A Ukrainian drone attack wounded two employees at an oil refinery in the 
Russian city of Yaroslavl, regional Gov. Mikhail Yevrayev said Tuesday. He 
added that there was damage to the refinery's infrastructure.

   Rolling blackouts have been instituted in the south, west and east of 
Russian-occupied Crimea following attacks on energy infrastructure, 
Moscow-installed officials said Tuesday.