The attack came hours after the longest pause in fighting of the war, which began with Russia’s full-scale invasion in February 2022 and is grinding through its fifth year after killing hundreds of thousands of people and displacing millions.
A senior Ukrainian figure told AFP on Sunday that Russia had refused a Ukrainian offer to extend the truce. The ceasefire last week enabled an evacuation of the Russian-occupied city of Oleshky, with people taken to both Ukraine-controlled territory and Moscow-annexed Crimea.
Footage posted by the Ukrainian emergency services showed a building reduced to piles of smouldering rubble, with rescuers working at the site.
Russia has intensified its attacks this year, firing ballistic missiles and fast jet-powered drones that are hard to intercept.
President Volodymyr Zelensky first put the death toll at 18. Ukraine’s state emergencies service, the DSNS, later said 24 people were confirmed killed, including two rescuers and four police officers. In a video address late on Monday, Zelensky said 26 people were now known to have died.
Acting regional governor Mykhailo Semikin said on Telegram that the first strike came just as people arrived. “The Russians carried out the first strike just as people arrived – several aerial bombs,” he said. “Then, there was a repeat strike – more aerial bombs, this time targeting the shelter.”. Officials said at least nine 3,000-kilogram aerial bombs hit the village in what Zelensky called an “utterly horrific” attack.
Zelensky said rescue teams were working at the scene but had been forced to halt their operation several times because of Russian drone attacks in the area. The DSNS said of those killed: “Every day, they went out to help people, working in dangerous conditions and risking their own lives to save others.”.
Among the dead were civilians who had gathered to collect humanitarian aid, as well as emergency workers and police officers, Ukrainian officials said.