Air Force
Komyshuvakha: Ukrainian intelligence names six Russian Su-34 pilots for the school strike – who planned the attack
Ukraine’s military intelligence (HUR) names the Russian colonel it says planned the November 2 strike on a school in Komyshuvakha and six Su-34 pilots it says dropped the bombs. The toll stands at at least 53 dead.
Names, ranks and units are given by Ukraine’s Defence Intelligence Directorate (HUR) for the strike on the school in Komyshuvakha, in the Zaporizhzhia region. In an announcement on Saturday, November 7, the service names the Russian officer who allegedly planned the attack and six pilots who, according to the Ukrainian side, dropped the bombs.
The strike took place on November 2, at 09:45. Two Russian guided bombs hit the “Dzherelo” gymnasium and destroyed the gym and an auxiliary building. An hour later a three-tonne FAB-3000 bomb followed, hitting the basement of the school. A shelter for residents operated there, as well as a point where civilians received humanitarian aid, electricity and heating.
The toll, as HUR gives it, is at least 53 dead, while more than fifty people are missing. Searches in the rubble continue and about 30 bodies may still lie under it. Some of the victims have not been identified and the authorities took DNA samples from relatives of the missing. We reported the double strike with FAB-3000 bombs on the humanitarian aid centre from the first day.
The names of the Russian officers
As responsible for planning the attack the Ukrainian service names Colonel Fyodor Vladimirovich Zubakov. He heads the fire-engagement group at the staff of the Russian “Dnepr” group of forces. Four Su-34 fighter-bombers took part in the operation.
The aircraft belonged to the 5th Tactical Air Group, part of the Special Combat Group of the Russian General Staff’s reserve air group. The group was set up with personnel from two regiments: the 11th Composite Air Regiment (military unit 77978) of the 4th Composite Air Division and the 559th Bomber Regiment of the 1st Composite Air Division. Both belong to the 4th Air and Air Defence Army of the Russian Aerospace Forces.
The pilots named are Captains Sergei Aleksandrovich Gelisheyev and Dmitry Andreyevich Zverev, Lieutenants Rodion Sergeyevich Plotnikov, Nikita Viktorovich Ignatyev and Maxim Viktorovich Sokolenko, and Second Lieutenant Vadim Olegovich Perekhrest. The crew of the fourth aircraft, HUR adds, is still being identified. These identifications are claims by the Ukrainian service and have not been independently verified.
The announcement closes with a warning: for every war crime against the Ukrainian people “there will be just retribution.” The attack on Komyshuvakha, with victims who were civilians sheltering in a school, coincided with diplomatic moves for a new round of trilateral talks on Ukraine in Abu Dhabi. The UK told the OSCE that Russia must show evidence for its own claims, as it condemned the Dnipro and Komyshuvakha strikes.