Ukrainian police have released bodycam footage that they say captures the interval between two Russian bomb strikes on a village in the Zaporizhzhia region, an attack that killed at least 40 people. The video offers a rare first-person view of what Ukraine describes as a Russian double-tap bombing, in which a second strike targeted those responding to the first.
The footage comes from a camera worn by a police officer who was among those killed. It shows residents of Kamyshuvakha moving through rubble after an initial strike before heading toward an underground shelter. A warning is heard over a radio that more glide bombs are incoming. An officer urges people to hurry into the shelter. Seconds later, an explosion is heard and flames appear as the shelter is struck; the recording ends there.
What the video shows
The bodycam clip, made public on Wednesday, opens on extensive damage in the southern village. Residents are seen staring at the remains of damaged buildings. The shelter they enter is described as being at least two floors below ground, near a local school that was being used to hand out humanitarian aid.
BBC Verify confirmed that the footage was filmed in the same location as separate video released by Ukraine’s state emergencies service, which showed the aftermath of Monday’s attack.
According to President Volodymyr Zelensky, nine aerial bombs were dropped on Kamyshuvakha, some weighing 3,000kg. He said the first strike hit people who had come for humanitarian aid, and the second hit rescuers and police officers who arrived at the scene.
Search operations continued for a third day. Zelensky said more than 30 people may still be trapped under the rubble. The emergencies service also published video showing a large crater left by the bombing, which completely destroyed the shelter.
Reaction and context
Zelensky criticised the international response as too muted, calling the attack one of thousands of war crimes committed by Russia. The Russian military has not publicly commented on the strike.
Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
Separately, Zelensky said he held a detailed 90-minute discussion with Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, US President Donald Trump’s peace envoys, ahead of trilateral talks involving Ukraine, Russia and the United States scheduled for 10-11 November in Abu Dhabi. He also said his team had a substantive meeting in Brussels with representatives from the US, the EU, France, Britain, Germany, Nato and the World Bank on post-war reconstruction, with discussions on security guarantees set to continue on Thursday.
The trilateral negotiations had been suspended since February. Since then, Moscow has intensified attacks while Kyiv has largely exhausted Western-supplied interceptors for missile defence. Analysts do not expect a major breakthrough when the talks resume in the Emirati capital.
