Ukraine says Russian strikes dash peace hopes after 26 killed

KYIV, (Ukraine): Ukraine said Monday that Russian strikes on a school distributing humanitarian aid killed at least 26 people, dashing fragile hopes of "progress toward 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.

Some of the dead had come to collect aid at a local school.

Footage posted by the Ukrainian emergency services showed the building reduced to piles of smouldering rubble and rescuers working at the site.

"Every Monday, humanitarian aid was distributed to people there," Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy 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.

Zelenskyy said that after the Oleshky truce, "there was a moment when the next steps could have shown that progress toward 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."

- Russia fortifies positions -

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 AFP on Sunday that Russia refused a Ukrainian offer to extend the truce.

Kyiv's military also alleged that Moscow had used the pause in fighting to "fortify its positions."

The Kremlin did not deny the accusations, with its spokesman Dmitry Peskov telling reporters Monday: "This is a completely normal practice in such situations."

He alleged the Ukrainian army had also used pauses in fighting in the past to regroup.

Moscow saw the Oleshky humanitarian mission as "successful", Peskov added, praising the "good cooperation between all sides" and singling out the role of its human rights commissioner Yana Lantratova.

Lantratova oversaw the ceasefire alongside her Ukrainian counterpart Dmytro Lubinets in one of the most substantial instances of Russian-Ukrainian cooperation since the start of the war.

The mission saw people evacuated to both Ukraine-controlled territory and Moscow-annexed Crimea.

The Kremlin said that no other similar missions were being planned "at the moment."

US-led talks between Russia and Ukraine are set to resume next week, US special envoy Steve Witkoff said Monday.

President Donald Trump has pushed for a settlement to the dragging war but there has been no breakthrough.

The talks — to be held Nov 10 and 11 in Abu Dhabi, Witkoff said — come as Kyiv and its European allies worry that Trump has increasingly sided with Moscow.

- Cyberattacks -

Both Russia and Ukraine said overnight that their emergency warnings apps were hacked in apparent cyberattacks that came hours after the truce had ended.

Ukraine said it suspected its air raid alert system had been compromised, after false alerts of a radiation threat were sent to millions.

The warning system provides vital information about incoming Russian drones and missiles.

Russia has intensified its attacks this year, firing ballistic missiles and fast jet-powered drones, both of which are hard to intercept.

Moscow said that an app belonging to its emergency situations ministry that also warns of attacks had been hacked, too.

The app is not widely used in Russia, where warnings of Ukrainian drone attacks are not as common and typically sent by text message in border regions. — AFP