Russian bomb attack on aid centre in southern Ukraine kills 26, officials say - CBC

Smoke rises over an underground shelter at a compound of a school after a Russian airstrike in the frontline town of Komyshuvakha, Ukraine. The school was used as a humanitarian aid hub. (National Police of Ukraine/Reuters)Social SharingRussia bombed an aid distribution centre and neighbouring shelter in southern Ukraine on Monday, killing 26 people, Ukraine's emergency services agency said.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in a post on X that 10 guided bombs targeted an area that included a school building used to distribute humanitarian aid and a nearby shelter.

"This is further proof that Russia wants no de-escalation," Zelenskyy said.

The attacks in the village of Komyshuvakha, in the southern Zaporizhzhia region, occurred as a limited ceasefire expired Monday in Kherson, a different region in the country's south. The limited ceasefire agreement had allowed humanitarian aid and evacuation missions into front-line areas in Russian-occupied territory.

"There was a moment when the next steps could have shown that progress toward peace was possible," Zelenskyy said. "With these killings, Russia is sending an entirely opposite signal: Russia is counting on more killings."

Zelenskyy later said in an address to the nation that Ukraine was expecting Russia to escalate its attacks at a time when the country is facing a shortage of missiles needed to defend itself.

As night fell in Komyshuvakha, emergency responders used flashlights to search through the rubble of collapsed buildings, according to photos and video posted online by local officials. About 20 people are considered missing and the death toll could rise, these officials say.

Efforts to rescue people Monday evening were hindered as Russian drones launched additional attacks in the area that had been bombed, according to Mykhailo Semikin, a military official in Zaporizhzhia.

A screenshot of a phone shows a series of false alerts received late Sunday from an emergency alert app that was subject to a cyberattack, in Kyiv. The third message in Russian reads 'Hi! There will be a nuclear threat across Ukraine. Do not worry, the Oreshnik is incoming.' The fifth and sixth messages in Ukrainian read 'Increased danger, Go to the shelter.' (The Associated Press)

Earlier, officials in Ukraine and Russia said their emergency alert mobile apps were targeted by cyberattacks on Sunday, with users in Ukraine receiving false warnings of dangerously high radiation levels in the capital, Kyiv.

In a Telegram post late Sunday, Ukraine's air raid alert channel said "unauthorized parties" had interfered with the app's operation and that the service had been temporarily suspended. It warned users not to click on links in "suspicious notifications."

Authorities in Ukraine said the app, which Ukrainians rely on to seek safety amid daily Russian missile and drone strikes, was restored overnight. The alerts — making false claims of high radiation levels, a chemical threat and public disturbances in Kyiv — were written in English with spelling and grammatical errors, as well as in a mix of Russian and Ukrainian.

One of the false posts mentioned the hacking group Hitcore.

Municipal employees in Odesa work at the site of homes that were damaged during a Russian drone strike on Monday, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine. (Nina Liashonok/Reuters)

Mash, a Russian Telegram channel with links to the security services, said it had spoken to representatives of Hitcore and that they had claimed responsibility for the attack. That claim could not be independently verified.

Ukraine's state-run Center for Countering Disinformation reported the breach and urged users to monitor emergency channels on social media and rely on physical alerts while the cyberattack was being addressed.

Yurii Ihnat, a spokesperson for Ukraine's air force command, said the cyberattack had no impact on Ukraine's security and defence operations because the app is separate from military command systems.

Ihnat told Ukraine's private 1+1 television channel that the air force continues to report real-time threats through independent communication channels, including popular social media platforms.

In Russia, officials said Monday that hackers had sent fake emergency alerts after gaining access to the Russian Emergency Ministry's mobile app.

The ministry did not name who carried out the attack. In a statement, it reassured Russians that the wider public alert system was working normally, and that the mobile app acted as a supplementary service alongside alerts shared through SMS messages, media broadcasts and municipal sirens and loudspeakers.

In other fighting, Ukrainian authorities in the Kherson region reported multiple Russian drone attacks early Monday, hours after a humanitarian ceasefire expired.

The regional administration said a 62-year-old woman and a 73-year-old man were hospitalized with blast injuries in the city of Kherson, across the Dnipro River from Russian-occupied territory.

The localized ceasefire ended at midnight at the start of Monday. The brief pause in fighting was tied to a humanitarian aid mission in the Russian-occupied city of Oleshky.

The ceasefire, which began Oct. 27, marked the most significant truce between Kyiv and Moscow since Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine began nearly five years ago.

The pause allowed besieged residents of Oleshky to be evacuated in a rare joint operation that ended Saturday.

An estimated 2,000 civilians were in Oleshky when the temporary truce took effect. They could evacuate to territory controlled by either Ukraine or Russia, or remain in the city with replenished food and medical supplies. Exact evacuation totals were withheld to protect those who stayed.

Ukraine's general staff said Monday that Russia's military had bolstered its drone defences and replenished ammunition supplies in the area during the ceasefire.

Elsewhere in Ukraine, emergency services reported that drone strikes injured at least 17 people in the eastern Kharkiv region and damaged a refrigeration facility, greenhouses and residential buildings.

Five people were also reported injured in the Black Sea port city of Odesa, where a warehouse was targeted and homes were damaged.