Ukraine said Monday that Russian strikes on a school distributing humanitarian aid killed at least 26 people, dashing fragile hopes of "progress towards peace" after a local ceasefire in the south expired without violations. Russia resumed its strikes on the southern region of Kherson after the end of a ceasefire in the area, the longest truce in the war raging between the neighbours since Russia's 2022 invasion, Kyiv said. A rare pause in the fighting, brokered by US First Lady Melania Trump to enable a mission to the Russian-occupied city of Oleshky, ended Sunday after starting on Tuesday, with neither side reporting breaches.
But hours after the truce, Russia targeted a village in Zaporizhzhia, adjacent to Kherson, with repeated strikes that killed at least 26 people, the acting regional governor said. Footage posted by the Ukrainian emergency services showed the building reduced to piles of smouldering rubble and rescuers working at the site. Read moreRussia and Ukraine accuse each other of hacking emergency alert apps "Every Monday, humanitarian aid was distributed to people there," Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said in his daily address.
"The Russians carried out the first strike just as people arrived – several aerial bombs. Then, there was a repeat strike – more aerial bombs, this time targeting the shelter." Among those killed were "two rescue workers and four police officers", acting regional governor Mykhailo Semikin said on Telegram. The service named the rescuers as two 44-year-olds: Denys Konovalenko and Oleksy Sushchevsky.
"Every day, they went out to help people, working in dangerous conditions and risking their own lives to save others," it said in a statement. Zelensky said that after the Oleshky truce, "there was a moment when the next steps could have shown that progress towards peace was possible". "With these killings, Russia is sending an entirely opposite signal: Russia is counting on more killings.
There must be a response to this." To display this content from YouTube, you must enable advertisement tracking and audience measurement. One of your browser extensions seems to be blocking the video player from loading. To watch this content, you may need to disable it on this site.
Cover image: Residents of Oleshky react after being evacuated from their Russian-occupied hometown as they cross the Belarus-Ukraine border in Chernyhiv region, Ukraine, Saturday, Oct. 31, 2026 © Efrem Lukatsky, AP The ceasefire last week enabled an evacuation of the Russian-occupied city of Oleshky. It was the longest pause in fighting between the neighbours in the war, which is grinding through its fifth year after killing hundreds of thousands of people and displacing millions. A senior Ukrainian figure told on Sunday that Russia refused a Ukrainian offer to extend the truce.
Extract — continue reading at the source.
