Russia strikes kill 26 in Ukraine, dealing fresh blow to peace hopes

KYIV, Nov 3 — 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 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 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 November 10 and 11 in Abu Dhabi, Witkoff said — come as Kyiv and its European allies worry that Trump has increasingly sided with Moscow.

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

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基辅，11 月 3 日——乌克兰周一表示，俄罗斯袭击了一所分发人道主义援助物资的学校，造成至少 26 人死亡，此前南部地区停火协议到期且未发生任何违反事件，这使得“走向和平”的脆弱希望破灭。

基辅方面表示，俄罗斯在赫尔松南部地区停火结束后，恢复了对该地区（赫尔松）的空袭。这是自俄罗斯2022年入侵以来，两国之间战争中持续时间最长的停火。

在美国第一夫人梅拉尼娅·特朗普的斡旋下，为使俄罗斯能够前往被占领的奥列什基市执行任务，双方罕见地暂停了战斗。暂停从周二开始，周日结束，双方均未报告任何违规行为。

但停火协议生效数小时后，俄罗斯对邻近赫尔松的扎波罗热共和国的一个村庄发动了多次空袭，造成至少 26 人死亡，代理地区州长表示。

部分死者曾到当地一所学校领取救济物资。

乌克兰紧急救援部门发布的视频显示，该建筑物已化为一堆堆冒着烟的瓦砾，救援人员正在现场工作。

乌克兰总统泽连斯基在每日讲话中表示：“每周一，我们都会向那里的人们分发人道主义援助物资。”

“就在人们抵达时，俄国人发动了第一次袭击——投下了几枚航空炸弹。随后，他们又进行了第二次袭击——投下了更多航空炸弹，这次的目标是防空洞。”

代理地区长官米哈伊洛·塞米金在 Telegram 上表示，遇难者中包括“两名救援人员和四名警察”。

救援人员称，两名救援人员分别是44岁的丹尼斯·科诺瓦连科和奥列克西·苏什切夫斯基。

声明中说：“他们每天都外出帮助他人，在危险的环境下工作，冒着生命危险拯救他人。”

泽连斯基表示，在奥列什基停战之后，“本应有时刻表明，接下来的步骤可以表明，和平进程是可能的”。

“俄罗斯通过这些杀戮发出了截然相反的信号：俄罗斯期待着更多的杀戮。必须对此作出回应。”

俄罗斯加强阵地

上周的停火使得被俄罗斯占领的奥列什基市得以撤离。

这是邻国之间战争中持续时间最长的停战期。这场战争已经持续了五年，造成数十万人死亡，数百万人流离失所。

一位乌克兰高级官员周日告诉法新社，俄罗斯拒绝了乌克兰提出的延长停火的提议。

基辅军方还声称，莫斯科利用战斗暂停的机会“巩固了其阵地”。

克里姆林宫并未否认这些指控，其发言人德米特里·佩斯科夫周一告诉记者：“在这种情况下，这是完全正常的做法。”

他声称，乌克兰军队过去也曾利用战斗间歇期进行重整旗鼓。

佩斯科夫补充说，莫斯科认为奥列什基人道主义任务“取得了成功”，赞扬了“各方之间的良好合作”，并特别表扬了其人权事务专员亚娜·兰特拉托娃的作用。

兰特拉托娃与乌克兰对等官员德米特罗·卢比涅茨共同监督了停火，这是自战争开始以来俄乌两国最实质性的合作之一。

此次行动中，人员被疏散到乌克兰控制的地区和莫斯科吞并的克里米亚。

克里姆林宫表示，“目前”没有计划执行其他类似任务。

美国特使史蒂夫·威特科夫周一表示，由美国主导的俄罗斯和乌克兰之间的会谈将于下周恢复。

唐纳德·特朗普总统一直力促结束这场旷日持久的战争，但至今仍未取得突破。

维特科夫表示，会谈将于11月10日至11日在阿布扎比举行。基辅及其欧洲盟友担心特朗普越来越倾向于莫斯科。

俄罗斯和乌克兰昨晚均表示，他们的紧急预警应用程序遭到黑客攻击，这显然是网络攻击，而攻击发生在停火协议结束数小时后。

乌克兰表示，在向数百万人发送了虚假的辐射威胁警报后，他们怀疑自己的空袭警报系统遭到了破坏。

该预警系统提供有关来袭的俄罗斯无人机和导弹的重要信息。

今年，俄罗斯加大了攻击力度，发射弹道导弹和高速喷气式无人机，这两种武器都难以拦截。

莫斯科方面表示，其紧急情况部开发的一款用于预警袭击的应用程序也遭到了黑客攻击。

这款应用程序在俄罗斯并不普及，因为在俄罗斯，乌克兰无人机袭击的预警并不常见，边境地区的预警通常是通过短信发送的。——法新社

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