Ukraine reports 26 dead in Zaporizhzhia strikes following truce collapse
Aid recipients and emergency responders were among the casualties as fighting resumed after a US-brokered pause in Kherson ended.
By Yuki Melnyk ·
Ukrainian officials confirmed that Russian airstrikes killed at least 26 people in a village in the southern Zaporizhzhia region on Monday. The victims included individuals collecting humanitarian aid, two rescue workers, and four police officers. President Volodymyr Zelensky stated that aerial bombs hit a school while residents gathered for their weekly assistance distribution. A subsequent strike then targeted the shelter where people had taken cover. Emergency service video showed rescuers moving through the smoldering remains of the building.
Acting regional governor Mykhailo Semikin identified the dead rescue workers as Denys Konovalenko and Oleksy Sushchevsky, both 44 years old. The emergency service noted that both men regularly operated in dangerous conditions to save others. Zelensky said the recent ceasefire had offered a chance to show that peace could progress, but the killings sent the opposite signal.
The local ceasefire in neighboring Kherson had been brokered by US First Lady Melania Trump. It ran from Tuesday until Sunday to facilitate a humanitarian mission in the Russian-occupied town of Oleshky. Neither side reported violations during that period, allowing residents to evacuate to Ukrainian-controlled territory or Moscow-annexed Crimea. Kyiv said Russia resumed attacks on Kherson immediately after the agreement expired. A senior Ukrainian official told AFP on Sunday that Moscow rejected Kyiv’s proposal to extend the truce.
Ukraine’s military accused Russian forces of using the pause to strengthen their positions. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov did not deny the claim on Monday. He described such activity as normal and alleged that Ukrainian troops had previously used similar pauses to regroup. Peskov called the Oleshky mission successful and praised the cooperation between Russian human rights commissioner Yana Lantratova and her Ukrainian counterpart, Dmytro Lubinets. The Kremlin stated that no comparable missions are currently planned.
Separately, both nations reported that emergency warning applications were hacked in apparent cyberattacks hours after the ceasefire ended. Ukrainian authorities said they suspected a compromise in their air raid alert system after millions of people received false radiation warnings. This system provides critical alerts about incoming Russian missiles and drones. Russia reported a similar hack affecting an application run by its emergency situations ministry, which issues attack warnings in border areas.
Diplomatic efforts are scheduled to continue next week. US special envoy Steve Witkoff said on Monday that American-led negotiations between Russia and Ukraine will resume in Abu Dhabi on November 10 and 11. President Donald Trump has sought a settlement without achieving a breakthrough, while Kyiv and European allies have expressed concern that he has increasingly aligned with Moscow.
