Ukraine said on 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.
The strikes hit the village of Komyshuvakha, in the Zaporizhzhia region adjacent to Kherson, hours after the truce ended on Sunday. Some of those killed had come to collect aid at a local school, the acting regional governor said, and footage posted by Ukraine’s emergency services showed the building reduced to piles of smouldering rubble, with rescuers working at the site.
President Volodymyr Zelensky said aid was distributed at the site every Monday. “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,” he said in his daily address. He said 10 guided bombs targeted an area that included the school building and a nearby shelter.
Among the dead were two rescue workers and four police officers, acting regional governor Mykhailo Semikin said on Telegram. The emergency service named the rescuers as two 44-year-olds, Denys Konovalenko and Oleksy Sushchevsky, saying they had gone out every day to help people, working in dangerous conditions and risking their own lives to save others.
The casualty figures are those given by Ukrainian officials and have not been independently verified by The Hourly News. Russia has not publicly commented on this strike, and local officials have warned the death toll could rise, with people still reported missing under the rubble.
The attack came after the longest pause in fighting of the war so far. A rare local ceasefire in the Kherson region, brokered by US First Lady Melania Trump to enable a mission to the Russian-occupied city of Oleshky, began on Tuesday and ended on Sunday with neither side reporting breaches. A senior Ukrainian figure said Russia had refused a Ukrainian offer to extend the truce, and Kyiv’s military alleged Moscow had used the pause to fortify its positions.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov did not deny that accusation, telling reporters on Monday that fortifying positions was “a completely normal practice in such situations”, while also praising the Oleshky mission as successful. He said no other similar missions were being planned at the moment.
Zelensky said that after the Oleshky truce, there had been 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,” he said.
US-led talks between Russia and Ukraine are set to resume next week, US special envoy Steve Witkoff said on Monday, with meetings scheduled for 10 and 11 November in Abu Dhabi. President Donald Trump has pushed for a settlement to the war, which is grinding through its fifth year, but there has been no breakthrough.
Note: the featured image is a file photo of a fire engine in Zaporizhzhia after a Russian drone strike on a fire station on 15 June 2026, not a photograph of the Komyshuvakha strikes.
Sources: Agence France-Presse, “Russia strikes kill 26 in Ukraine, dealing fresh blow to peace hopes”, 3 November 2026, https://theleaders-online.com/russia-strikes-kill-26-in-ukraine-dealing-fresh-blow-to-peace-hopes/ ; Associated Press, “Russian bomb attacks on aid centre and shelter kill 26, Ukrainian officials say”, 2 November 2026, https://www.chelmsfordcitynews.co.uk/news/national/26692822.russian-bomb-attacks-aid-centre-shelter-kill-26-ukrainian-officials-say/
