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

KYIV, Ukraine — Russia bombed an aid distribution center and neighboring shelter in southern Ukraine on Monday, killing 24 people, Ukraine's emergency services agency said. Russia bombs aid center and shelter in southern Ukraine, killing 24, authorities sayUkrainian 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. In other areas of Ukraine, authorities reported multiple Russian drone attacks that injured at least 17 people. 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 cyber attacks 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. 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 photo shared of Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko, a former international kickboxing champion, included the message: “It’s a good thing we have a boxer for a mayor.” In a Telegram post late Sunday following the breach, Ukraine’s air raid alert channel said “unauthorized parties” had interfered with the app’s operation and warned users not to click on links in “suspicious notifications.” Ukraine's state-run Center for Countering Disinformation urged people to monitor other emergency channels on social media while the cyberattack was being addressed.

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. In a statement, Russia’s Emergency Situations Ministry said 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 said that the digital vulnerability exploited by the attackers had been identified and that “necessary measures” were being taken to prevent a similar breach.

It also reassured Russians that the wider public alert system was working normally through SMS messages, media broadcasts and municipal sirens and loudspeakers. Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said all of Russia’s state agencies were under the constant threat of cyberattacks, including a growing number that use artificial intelligence.