Russian strikes killed at least 26 people in a village in Ukraine's southern Zaporizhzhia region on Monday, Ukrainian officials said, with aid recipients, rescue workers and police officers among the dead. The attacks followed the expiry of a local ceasefire in neighbouring Kherson that Kyiv described as the longest pause in fighting since Russia launched its invasion in 2022.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said aerial bombs first struck as people arrived at a school for its weekly distribution of humanitarian assistance. A further attack then hit the shelter, he said. Video released by Ukraine's emergency services showed rescuers searching through smouldering debris where the building had stood.
Acting regional governor Mykhailo Semikin said two rescue workers and four police officers were among those killed. The emergency service identified the rescuers as Denys Konovalenko and Oleksy Sushchevsky, both 44. It said they had regularly worked in dangerous conditions to save others. Zelensky said the preceding truce had offered an opportunity to demonstrate that peace could advance, but that the killings sent the opposite message.
The ceasefire, brokered by US First Lady Melania Trump, ran from Tuesday until Sunday to allow a humanitarian mission in Russian-occupied Oleshky. Neither side reported violations during the pause, which enabled residents to be evacuated to Ukrainian-controlled territory and Moscow-annexed Crimea. Kyiv said Russia resumed attacks on Kherson after the agreement expired.
A senior Ukrainian figure told AFP on Sunday that Moscow had rejected Kyiv's proposal to prolong the truce. Ukraine's military also accused Russian forces of using the interval to strengthen their positions. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov did not deny that accusation on Monday, describing such activity as normal in those circumstances and alleging that Ukrainian troops had previously used pauses to regroup.
Peskov called the Oleshky mission successful and praised cooperation among the participants, highlighting Russian human rights commissioner Yana Lantratova. She supervised the ceasefire with her Ukrainian counterpart, Dmytro Lubinets, in one of the most substantial examples of cooperation between the countries since the invasion. The Kremlin said no comparable missions were currently planned. The war, now in its fifth year, has killed hundreds of thousands of people and displaced millions.
Diplomatic efforts are due to continue next week. US special envoy Steve Witkoff said Monday that American-led negotiations between Russia and Ukraine would resume in Abu Dhabi on November 10 and 11. President Donald Trump has sought a settlement without achieving a breakthrough, while Kyiv and its European allies have expressed concern that he has increasingly aligned himself with Moscow.
Separately, Russia and Ukraine reported overnight that emergency warning applications had been hacked in apparent cyberattacks occurring hours after the ceasefire ended. Ukrainian authorities said they suspected their air raid alert system had been compromised after millions of people received false radiation warnings. The system carries essential alerts about approaching Russian missiles and drones. Russia has increased attacks this year using ballistic missiles and fast jet-powered drones, both difficult to intercept.
Moscow also reported a hack affecting an application operated by its emergency situations ministry that issues attack warnings. That app has limited use in Russia, where alerts about Ukrainian drone attacks are less frequent and are generally delivered through text messages in border areas.
