Dozens still missing after Russian bomb attack in southern Ukraine, as Kremlin confirms talks next week

Rescue crews in southern Ukraine pressed on with an intensive search for survivors on Tuesday at the ruins of an aid facility and shelter in the village of Komyshuvakha, where at least 31 people were killed in a Russian guided-bomb attack and more than 45 residents remained missing.

Emergency workers and volunteers combed through debris at the cratered blast site in the Zaporizhzhia region, recovering bodies that were carried away in white plastic sheeting. The dead included four police officers and two rescue workers, and at least five people were injured.

"The scale of the tragedy is terrifying," Mykhailo Semikin, acting head of the region's military administration, wrote in an online post, calling it one of the worst tragedies in terms of civilian victims in the region since the start of the full-scale war. Three days of mourning were declared in Zaporizhzhia following Monday's attack, in which Russian bunker-busting bombs, some carrying nearly 1.5 tonnes of explosives, were used.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Russia launched 289 attack drones, 17 ballistic missiles and 59 cruise missiles across nine regions, triggering emergency power cuts. Noting that the barrage coincided with U.S. elections, he said in an online post: "The Russians think America won't notice this signal of theirs. But we need to notice and stop such terror." He urged partners to help Ukraine defend its skies.

Even as the strikes continued, diplomacy aimed at ending the nearly five-year war moved forward. Zelenskyy met German Chancellor Friedrich Merz in Berlin on Tuesday, a week before U.S.-brokered Russia-Ukraine peace negotiations resume. Germany has become Ukraine's largest supporter since Donald Trump returned to office last year and withdrew U.S. financial support, though Washington still provides intelligence to Kyiv and allows other countries to purchase U.S. weapons on its behalf.

It was confirmed on Tuesday that Russia and Ukraine will meet in Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates on Nov. 10-11 for talks that will include U.S. officials. Zelenskyy said security guarantees, an "energy ceasefire" and a Black Sea truce to protect food exports would be on the agenda, while the Kremlin said Vladimir Medinsky, an aide to President Vladimir Putin, would serve as Moscow's chief negotiator. Previous mediation attempts by Turkey produced prisoner and war dead exchanges but no breakthrough, and the European Commission was set to host a meeting on the war on Wednesday with U.S., Ukrainian, NATO and European representatives.

White House envoys have spoken to both sides in recent weeks, though questions have emerged about American loyalties following a U.S. diesel deal with Russia and antagonistic statements by Trump about Zelenskyy. Last week, Ukraine and Russia agreed to a six-day humanitarian ceasefire in the southern city of Oleshky in the Kherson region, an arrangement that Melania Trump helped push for; she is expected to host Ukrainian and Russian representatives at the White House on Thursday, though it was not immediately clear who would represent the two countries.

Ukraine's Energy Ministry said Moscow kept up nightly attacks on power plants and energy infrastructure ahead of winter, carrying out 20 strikes in 10 regions overnight and causing extensive damage and outages. In the northeastern Kharkiv region, a combined missile and drone attack wounded at least 62 people, damaged a medical facility and shattered windows in four apartment buildings, with more than 200 patients transferred to other facilities, regional governor Oleh Syniehubov said.

In the Dnipro area, rescuers pulled a woman alive from the rubble on Tuesday morning after an attack that killed one person and wounded 17, damaging an outpatient clinic and a hospital, according to regional administration head Oleksandr Hanzha.

On the other side of the front, Russia's Defence Ministry said it shot down 856 Ukrainian drones overnight, with Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin saying 493 were fired toward the capital. A Ukrainian drone attack involving 124 drones wounded two employees at the Slavneft Yaroslavnefteorgsintez oil refinery in Yaroslavl, some 250 kilometres northeast of Moscow, a facility Ukraine has struck at least twice before, regional Gov. Mikhail Yevrayev said. Moscow-installed officials also said rolling blackouts were instituted in parts of Russian-occupied Crimea following attacks on energy infrastructure.