Kyiv loses power as Ukraine's death toll in southern village reaches 40

Russian aerial attacks knocked out electricity and water across Kyiv and surrounding regions on Wednesday. The strikes forced residents to rely on public drinking fountains while emergency crews set up temporary centers to provide heat and charging stations.

In the Zaporizhzhia region, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy announced that the death toll in the village of Komyshuvakha has risen to 40. He said 30 more people may remain buried under the rubble of a former school and nearby shelter that were hit on Monday.

Zelenskyy described the attack as one of the deadliest in the area in nearly five years of war. He noted that residents were waiting for humanitarian aid when multiple Russian guided bombs struck the site.

"Unfortunately, there has been very little reaction from the world to this insane attack," Zelenskyy said in a post on X. He added that the incident demands a strong response because evil goes further if left unanswered.

Ukraine's air force reported that Russia launched 310 drones overnight, including 81 jet-powered models. The force said it downed or suppressed 272 of the projectiles before they reached their targets.

Search operations in Komyshuvakha continued for a third day on Wednesday, though Russian drones hampered the efforts. Mykhailo Semikin, the acting head of the regional military administration, confirmed that operations would proceed despite the aerial threats.

Ivan Fedorov, co-chair of the regional defense council, stated that 12 bodies have been identified so far. The National Police of Ukraine said visual identification was not possible for all victims and that specialists are collecting DNA samples from relatives.

Body camera footage from a police officer killed in the strike captured the moments before the second impact. The video shows the officer descending into a shelter and urging survivors to move down. A brief rumble is heard as the feed cuts to black.

Vladyslav Makhovskyi, a Baptist pastor who joined the search on Tuesday, said he understood many were killed immediately. He noted that even those still alive likely could not breathe in the collapsed structure.

In Brussels, officials from the United States, Germany, France, Britain, NATO, the World Bank, and the European Union met to discuss postwar reconstruction scenarios. EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said the talks focused on European demands for Russian concessions in future negotiations.

The Brussels meeting occurred ahead of a new round of U.S.-brokered peace talks scheduled for next week. These discussions will take place more than four and a half years after Russia's full-scale invasion.

The attack in Komyshuvakha followed the end of a six-day ceasefire in Oleshky, Kherson region. That truce allowed for the evacuation of residents from the occupied city and marked the most significant pause in fighting since 2022.