What did BBC Monitoring's Vitaly Shevchenko say about the Russian strike on the Zaporizhzhia aid centre?

Vitaly Shevchenko, chief analyst at BBC Monitoring, said the strike on a school near Zaporizhzhia that was being used as an aid and shelter point was very hard to explain as anything but deliberate, given that Ukrainian officials counted at least nine glide bombs of 3,000 kg each. He said repeat strikes killed rescuers and police who arrived after the first blast, and that the Oleshky ceasefire offered no sign of better Russia-Ukraine cooperation.

• Ukraine put the death toll at at least 26, with more people believed buried under rubble.
• Two rescuers and four police officers were among the dead.
• Ukrainian police said continuing Russian drone attacks hampered the search for survivors.
• Shevchenko noted theories that Russia agreed to the Oleshky truce to avoid upsetting Donald Trump or to resupply troops in Kherson.

▸In their words

“Given the alleged number of bombs used by Russia, it's hard to see how this could not have been deliberate.” Vitaly Shevchenko · at 2:52 — open in the transcript →

Source: our own transcription of the episode. The full conversation is on Global News Podcast (2026-11-03). Read the whole episode summary →

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