Zelenskyy to visit Berlin for talks with Merz before Abu Dhabi trilateral talks

▲ Escalating

Russian strikes kill at least 26 in southern Ukrainian village after Kherson truce ends

Russian strikes on a southern Ukrainian village on Monday killed at least 26 people, including civilians collecting humanitarian aid, emergency workers and police officers, hours after the Kherson-region ceasefire expired. Kyiv says at least nine 3,000kg aerial bombs hit the village, and local officials say 27 people are missing. Overnight into Tuesday, Russian ballistic missiles and aerial bombs struck a medical facility and power plants, injuring at least 73 people. Chancellor Merz confirmed Zelenskyy will make an unannounced visit to Berlin ahead of trilateral talks with Russia and the US in Abu Dhabi next week.

• The six-day Kherson-region truce, described as the longest of the war, ended on Sunday evening and was not extended; fighting has resumed.
• Ukraine says its national air raid alert app was probably hacked as the truce ended; Moscow then reported a hack of its own emergency alert app, and the two sides traded blame.
• Russian state media say Ukrainian drones set fire to the Kstovo refinery in Nizhny Novgorod region after a major strike on a Rosneft refinery in Samara region.
• Thousands of European troops are to take part in an exercise simulating a deployment to Ukraine if peace is reached; Western officials say such a force would not take part in offensive operations.