After a limited humanitarian truce that lasted for six days in the Kherson region in southern Ukraine, mediated by Melania Trump, Russian attacks returned on Monday, killing at least 26 people in a village in the Zaporizhya region, where a school that was distributing humanitarian aid was targeted. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky accused Moscow of undermining the chances of progress towards peace, while the two sides exchanged accusations of exploiting the calm to regroup forces, ahead of the resumption of US-brokered talks in the UAE.

Published on: 03/11/2026 - 00:25

Ukraine announced on Monday that at least 26 people were killed in Russian strikes that targeted a village in the Zaporizhya region in the south of the country, including a school that was distributing humanitarian aid, hours after the end of a limited truce in the neighboring Kherson region. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky considered that the attacks dashed hopes for progress towards peace.

The bombing came after the end of a truce that lasted from Tuesday until Sunday in the Oleshki area of ​​Kherson, mediated by US First Lady Melania Trump, after Moscow rejected a Ukrainian proposal to extend it, according to officials in Kiev.

The governor of the Zaporizhya region reported that repeated Russian strikes targeted a village in the region, killing at least 26 people, including civilians who had gone to a school to receive humanitarian aid.

Scenes published by Ukrainian emergency services showed a building turned into rubble and smoke billowing out, while rescue teams were working at the site.

Zelensky said on social media that the humanitarian truce in Oleshki raised hopes that progress could be achieved towards peace, but Russia sent through the new attacks “a completely opposite signal,” considering that it was “betting on more killing.”

He added that what happened constitutes "further evidence that Russia does not want de-escalation or real justice."

For his part, the governor of the region, Mykhailo Semykin, announced that among the victims were a policeman and two rescue personnel from the state emergency service.

Read also: A truce between Moscow and Kiev in the occupied Oleshki region in southern Ukraine to bring in humanitarian aid and evacuate civilians

Resumed attacks on the Dnipro front

In Kherson, the Ukrainian authorities announced the resumption of Russian attacks on Monday morning, after the end of the truce that lasted for about six days without any incidents recorded.

The municipality reported that a Russian drone targeted a car in the Korabelny neighborhood around eight in the morning, wounding two people. The head of the local military administration, Jaroslav Chanko, also announced that a medical facility in the city center had been attacked by a drone, without any casualties.

Kherson is constantly subjected to attacks carried out by Russian forces stationed on the opposite bank of the Dnipro River, after Moscow took control of the city for a short period at the beginning of the war.

The truce allowed the evacuation of a number of residents of Oleshki, which is under Russian control, about 10 kilometers southeast of Kherson, in light of an acute shortage of food and medicine due to the battles.

Fears of a new escalation

Ukrainian Commissioner for Human Rights Dmytro Lobinets confirmed on Sunday that both parties were committed to their commitments during the truce, noting that he was working with his Russian counterpart, Yana Lantatova, on new humanitarian initiatives.

But a senior official in the Ukrainian presidency told Agence France-Presse that Moscow rejected Kiev's proposal to extend the ceasefire.

Before the end of the truce, a Ukrainian officer in the region, who requested to remain anonymous, warned that the fighting “will be hell, even worse than before,” accusing Russian forces of exploiting the calm period to mobilize additional forces, transfer ammunition, and collect intelligence information.

In response to these accusations, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Monday that such moves are “quite common practices” during periods of calm, adding that Ukrainian forces also took advantage of the truce to regroup their forces.

The ceasefire was limited to the Oleshki region, while battles and strikes continued on other fronts throughout its period of effect.

In a separate development, applications warning of security risks in Ukraine and Russia were subjected to electronic attacks after the end of the truce on Sunday, which led to the broadcast of false alerts about nuclear and chemical threats and street battles. No party has claimed responsibility for the hacking operations.

These developments come before the resumption of US-brokered Russian-Ukrainian talks in the UAE during November, after stopping since February, coinciding with the outbreak of war in the Middle East following the first US-Israeli strikes on Iran.

France 24/AFP

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