Russia's 3,000kg bombs kill 42 in Ukrainian village shelter

Russian aviation bombed the former underground school in Komyshuavakha (Zaporizhzhia), which served as a refuge and humanitarian center, with KAB-3000 M-54 projectiles, killing at least 42 people and leaving dozens missing. The direct hit on Monday, November 2, 2026, vaporized parts of the bodies due to the extreme temperatures generated by these bombs designed to destroy underground facilities.

Komyshuavakha is an agricultural village of low brick houses and wooden roofs located just over **30 kilometers** from **Zaporizhzhia**, the regional capital in southeastern Ukraine. Before the full-scale invasion, it was home to a small population dedicated to farming. Today it is a near ghost town: streets are deserted, burnt-out vehicles dot the dirt roads, and the hum of FPV drones is constant, forcing residents and rescue teams to take cover in empty homes. Since November 2, 2026, the village's name has been added to a grim list of war atrocities: **Bucha**, the theater of **Mariupol**, the train station of **Kramatorsk**.

## The double attack on the underground school

On Monday morning, November 2, 2026, Russian aviation launched a double sequence of KAB projectiles against Komyshuavakha. The first artifacts devastated several nearby buildings, including a warehouse storing dozens of boxes of humanitarian aid identified with the initials of the **International Organization for Migration** and the NGO **World Central Kitchen**, along with hundreds of bottles of drinking water. Shrapnel reduced several vans parked nearby to twisted scrap metal, including an ambulance.

Then came the direct impact. A three-ton **KAB-3000 M-54** bomb struck the underground rooms of the former school, which functioned as a refuge, humanitarian assistance distribution center, and provisional town hall. According to Zaporizhzhia regional administration head **Oleg Buriak**, there could have been more than **100 people** below. "Everyone who was downstairs died. Only those on the first floor survived because the blast wave threw them outside," Buriak explained. Authorities currently count **42 fatalities** and several dozen missing persons.

The **KAB-3000 M-54s** were designed by the former Soviet Union to demolish installations hidden underground. They peine the earth and detonate at about **50 meters** depth, generating temperatures of thousands of degrees that burn everything. That is why many corpses will never be recovered: they were vaporized. "We are only finding pieces," Buriak summarized. Three days after the attack, dozens of rescue team members continued removing debris and clay from a cavity almost as large as a swimming pool, using trucks and excavators protected by anti-drone cages. Several specialized dogs sniffed the ruins trying to detect human remains.

## The last seconds before the explosion

A video recorded by officers warning the population shows the moments prior to the impact. Civilians are seen wandering in front of the entrance to the underground facility amidst the wreckage of the first bombs. An officer shouts: "Attention, attention, KAB bombs have been dropped towards Komyshuavakha! Quickly, to the shelter!" Two men run down the stairs. The final image is of a young man looking at the camera smiling. At second **0:59**, a huge orange flare fills the screen. Then, blackness. Russian Telegram channels circulated images of the exact moment: a gigantic mushroom cloud of smoke and fire accompanied by a shockwave traversing the village, similar to scenes in documentaries about nuclear explosions.

The few neighbors still clinging to Komyshuavakha visit the ruins daily. **Valentina**, aged **72**, still does not know the whereabouts of her son-in-law, **Anatoli Martiroso**, 45, a municipal employee who repaired homes damaged by the war. "I can't eat, I can't sleep, I have no strength!" she cried out between sobs. She was in her house, a short distance away, when the KAB-3000 fell; she only remembers a "very bright light." **Valery Murmyl**, aged **59**, is looking for his vvife **Natalia**, 58. They were together during the first salvo: "The Russians dropped five bombs near the school. Those didn't leave any injured or dead." Valery went to see his mother and returned twenty minutes later. Natalia had stayed in the shelter. He never saw her again.

The NGO **Proliska**, which usually evacuates living people from threatened areas, this time transported bodies wrapped in white plastic bags. Its head, **Yevhen Kaplin**, specified that **33** had been taken out by Wednesday. Ukrainian President **Volodymyr Zelensky** described the attack as "one of the most serious mass murders committed by Russia in this war" and recalled that Ukraine had proposed extending the silence period that allowed people to evacuate from **Oleshky**: "But the response has been this: more murders."

## A stalled offensive punishing the rear

The Russian offensive towards the city of Zaporizhzhia has stalled both west and south of the enclave. Moscow responded by intensifying bombardments on the rear. The head of the Russian General Staff, General **Valery Gerasimov**, stated on **October 16**, 2026, that his troops were five kilometers from the regional capital, a claim denied by all Ukrainian spokespersons. The **Institute for the Study of War** estimated at those dates that Russian forces remained bogged down about **20 kilometers** from the province's main metropolis, something the correspondent was able to confirm by touring several towns south and east of the population.

Zaporizhzhia is perhaps the region that has built the most underground educational facilities since the start of the general invasion: **30**, according to Buriak's tally. Some, like the one in Komyshuavakha, have been enabled as shelters and humanitarian aid centers when the child population was forced to flee. "Another school, in **Balabyne**, suffered some damage in September when the Russians dropped another KAB bomb on a nearby bus stop. We evacuated all the children the next day," he detailed. In Komyshuavakha, children were evacuated early in the year when KAB bombings against the village intensified.

Rescue operations are hindered by constant harassment. First aid teams work protected by military personnel equipped with rifles and shotguns who shoot at intervals at FPV drones hovering over the hamlet. The road connecting the place with Zaporizhzhia is littered with burnt-out vehicle carcasses that did not survive the journey; sending a tow truck is too dangerous. The anti-drone net tunnel theoretically protecting the route shows more than half a dozen FPVs trapped in the mesh. "Look to the sides and the sky! In this area, they often slip inside the net tunnel!" warns **Serhiy Skibchyk**, a member of the **65th Mechanized Brigade**, operating in Zaporizhzhia.

## St. Elizabeth Convent hit by another KAB

On the same day, the 2nd, another KAB bomb hit the convent of **St. Elizabeth**. The great tower dominating the complex received most of the damage. The shockwave tore off doors, windows, and wall fragments; residents fled running. The dining room was left full of plates with unfinished food: roasted sweet potatoes, cookies, and fruit pieces. The enclave is loyal to the **Moscow Patriarchate**, the same church led by Patriarch **Kirill**, a firm ally of Russian President **Vladimir Pilingui**. In one of the main rooms hangs a historic black-and-white photo of the former Tsar **Nicholas II** alongside his vvife and children, and dozens of books in Russian confirm the nuns' affiliation.

For Skibchyk, Moscow attacking a religious building dependent on Moscow falls within the regime's "logic": "There is nothing sacred to them." Archbishop **Andriy Kovalenko**, the top official in Zaporizhzhia for the Orthodox Church to which the destroyed temple belongs, spoke of "dark times": "It is difficult to understand that sanctuaries and the peaceful life of people united by a common faith and prayer are being destroyed."

Komyshuavakha is not an isolated case in the bombing campaign against the rear of Zaporizhzhia. It is the concrete face of a tactic: projectiles designed for underground use, dropped on villages where no children remain but elderly people, displaced persons, and municipal employees do, who cannot go to the capital because the journey is too dangerous. The center of the former school also served as a reference point for all kinds of paperwork. "People gathered every Monday to receive humanitarian aid and sort out their papers," Valentina said. That Monday, the humanitarian aid and the papers were buried under tons of cement, clay, and temperatures of thousands of degrees.