Russia bombs aid center and shelter in southern Ukraine, killing 24, authorities say

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Russia bombed an aid distribution center and neighboring shelter in southern Ukraine on Monday, killing 24 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.”

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.

In other areas of Ukraine, authorities reported multiple Russian drone attacks that injured at least 17 people.

After cyberattacks, false alerts sent in Ukraine and Russia

Earlier, residents of Ukraine and Russia had received phony emergency alerts from government-run mobile apps that were hacked, authorities in both countries said. The phony alerts in Ukraine included a warning about an imminent nuclear threat.

It was not clear if the cyberattacks late Sunday in Ukraine and early Monday in Russia were related. Ukraine said its mobile app, which residents rely on to seek safety from Russian missile and drone strikes, was up and running again after being temporarily suspended. Russian authorities said efforts to restore its emergency alert mobile app were ongoing.

A Russian Telegram channel with links to the country’s security services said Monday that a hacking group, Hitcore, claimed responsibility for the breach of the Ukrainian emergency alert system. The Associated Press did not independently verify the claim, and the affiliations or motivations of the purported hackers remained unclear.

The alerts received by Ukrainians — making false claims of high radiation levels, a chemical threat and public disturbances in Kyiv — were written in English, Russian and Ukrainian. The English language alerts contained spelling and grammatical errors.

One of the messages, written in Russian, said: “Hi! There will be a nuclear threat across Ukraine. Do not worry, the Oreshnik is incoming,” a reference to a Russian ballistic missile.

There was little indication the fake alerts caused panic in Ukraine. Instead, there was a flood of humorous posts online, with social media users sharing photos of their pets relaxing and apocalypse-themed images generated by artificial intelligence.

A spokesman for Ukraine’s air force command, Yurii Ihnat, said in a television interview that the cyberattack had no impact on Ukraine’s security and defense operations. The government urged people to monitor other emergency channels on social media while the cyberattack was being addressed.

In Russia, the Emergency Situations Ministry said in a statement that hackers sent a false alert through its app at approximately 2:45 a.m. Moscow time on Monday across 33 of Russia’s 89 regions. It did not say who it believed carried out the attack.

The ministry sought to reassure Russians by noting that the wider public alert system was working normally through SMS messages, media broadcasts and municipal sirens and loudspeakers.

“All government bodies must take steps to improve the cybersecurity of our digital resources,” Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said.

Limited ceasefire ends in Kherson region

As the ceasefire in Ukraine’s Kherson region came to an end on Monday, Ukraine’s general staff said that Russia’s military had used the pause in fighting to bolster its drone defenses and replenish ammunition supplies.

The brief pause in fighting, which began on Oct. 27, was part of a humanitarian aid and evacuation mission in the Russian-occupied city of Oleshky, and marked the most significant truce between Kyiv and Moscow since Russia’s full-scale invasion began nearly five years ago.

Elsewhere in Ukraine, emergency services reported that drone strikes injured 12 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.

Russia’s Ministry of Defense said Monday that it shot down 212 Ukrainian drones overnight. The head of Russia’s Samara region, Gov. Vyacheslav Fedorishchev, said in a statement that local air defenses were repelling an aerial attack, but did not give further details.

Independent Russian media outlets later reported that Ukrainian drones had targeted one of Europe’s largest oil transport hubs in Samara.

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Katie Marie Davies contributed to this report from Manchester, England.

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Follow the AP’s coverage of the war in Ukraine at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine