Southern Ukraine: Russian strikes kill 24 in aid zone

Twenty-four people died on Monday when Russian forces bombed an aid distribution center and a neighboring shelter in the village of Komyshuvakha, located in the southern Zaporizhzhia region. Ukraine’s emergency services agency confirmed the death toll, noting that about 20 additional residents are missing and the count may rise.

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy stated that ten guided bombs targeted the area, which included a school building used for humanitarian aid. He described the strikes as evidence that Russia seeks to avoid de-escalation. Zelenskyy noted that the attacks occurred as a limited ceasefire in the separate Kherson region expired. He said the killings sent a signal that Russia was counting on more violence rather than progress toward peace.

Emergency responders searched through rubble with flashlights as night fell. Local officials said Russian drones launched additional attacks in the area during the evening, which hindered rescue efforts. Mykhailo Semikin, a military official in Zaporizhzhia, confirmed that these secondary drone strikes made it difficult to reach survivors.

Elsewhere in Ukraine, authorities reported multiple drone attacks that injured at least 17 people. In the eastern Kharkiv region, strikes damaged a refrigeration facility, greenhouses, and residential buildings, injuring 12. In the Black Sea port city of Odesa, a warehouse was targeted, leaving five people injured and damaging nearby homes.

The strikes in Komyshuvakha happened the same day a brief pause in fighting in Kherson ended. This truce began on October 27 and was the most substantial ceasefire since the full-scale invasion started nearly five years ago. It allowed humanitarian aid and evacuation missions into the Russian-occupied city of Oleshky. Ukraine’s general staff said Russian forces used the pause to bolster drone defenses and replenish ammunition.

Earlier in the day, residents of both Ukraine and Russia received false emergency alerts from hacked government mobile apps. In Ukraine, the fake messages warned of a nuclear threat, high radiation levels, and chemical dangers. The alerts were written in English, Russian, and Ukrainian, with the English versions containing spelling errors. One message in Russian claimed that an Oreshnik ballistic missile was incoming.

Authorities in both countries said the cyberattacks occurred late Sunday in Ukraine and early Monday in Russia. It is not yet clear if the breaches were related. Ukraine’s air force spokesman Yurii Ihnat said the cyberattack did not impact security operations. The government urged citizens to use other social media channels for emergency updates while the app was suspended.

In Russia, the Emergency Situations Ministry said hackers sent a false alert at 2:45 a.m. Moscow time across 33 of the country’s 89 regions. The ministry stated that the wider public alert system, which uses SMS, media broadcasts, and sirens, remained functional. Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said all government bodies must improve the cybersecurity of their digital resources.

A Russian Telegram channel linked to security services reported that a hacking group named Hitcore claimed responsibility for the breach of the Ukrainian system. The Associated Press did not independently verify this claim. Meanwhile, Russia’s Ministry of Defense said it shot down 212 Ukrainian drones overnight. Governor Vyacheslav Fedorishchev of Samara region said local air defenses were repelling an aerial attack, and independent media later reported that Ukrainian drones targeted a major oil transport hub in the area.