The Ukraine Daily Briefing · Monday, November 2, 2026
Prepared by Diana Bozhyk
Less than a day after the Oleshky ceasefire expired, Russian aircraft bombed a school in Komyshuvakha where villagers gathered every Monday for humanitarian aid, then dropped nine more bombs on the shelter where people and rescuers took cover, killing at least 26, among them two rescuers and four police officers. Ukraine’s General Staff said Russia had used the truce to rotate troops and bring up ammunition, and that Russian losses hit a record 2,500 in a single day. Zelensky warned that Moscow is preparing a massive strike timed for the U.S. midterm elections.
The aftermath of a Russian aerial bomb attack on Komyshuvakha, Zaporizhzhia Oblast. (Local authorities/Telegram)
The Day’s Reckoning
Every Monday, the people who stayed in Komyshuvakha came to the school for food. Classes had stopped long ago; the village lies about 20 kilometers from the front. This Monday, Russian aircraft struck. The first guided bomb hit the school. When people ran to its shelter and rescuers arrived, nine more bombs fell on the shelter.
That is the plot of this Monday: the morning after a truce. For six days, the guns around Oleshky had been quiet, and Ukrainians had dared to hope the pause could become a habit. Moscow said it had no plans for another. Kyiv said Russian troops had used the quiet to dig in. And in Komyshuvakha, rescuers were still searching the rubble at nightfall.
“If Russia truly wanted de-escalation, then now, after Oleshky, there was a moment when humanitarian steps could have continued,” Zelensky said. “We proposed this. But Russia continues the killings.”
Komyshuvakha
You live in Komyshuvakha, southeast of Zaporizhzhia. On Monday morning, you walk to the school, as you do every week, to collect your aid package.
Russian aircraft bombed the village several times through the morning, Zelensky said. “After the first aerial bomb strike, there was a double-tap strike with nine more bombs, specifically targeting the shelter where people were taking cover.” Regional head Mykhailo Semikin said Russia used heavy guided bombs. “There is no doubt whatsoever: the Russians knew for certain that this is exactly where local residents receive aid every week,” Prime Minister Serhii Koretskyi said.
By Monday evening, Zelensky put the dead at 26 and the wounded at five; 27 people were missing. By Tuesday morning, the toll had risen to 29 and the number of missing to 48, Semikin said. Among the dead were four police officers and two rescuers, Denys Konovalenko and Oleksii Sushchevskyi, both 44. Konovalenko had served nearly 12 years in civil protection, and Sushchevskyi had worked in Zaporizhzhia fire and rescue units since 2013; together they left behind wives and four children. Rescuers who arrived after the first strike had gone into the shelter as the threat of another grew, said State Emergency Service chief Andrii Daynk; the second strike destroyed the gym, an outbuilding and a fire truck. Russian drones, shelling and smoke inside the collapsed building slowed the search, and Koretskyi said the constant threat of another strike made it harder still. “Rescue efforts are continuing as far as the security situation allows. There is a risk of follow-up Russian strikes – a vile tactic they always employ,” Zelensky wrote.
“Behind every number lies a human life, a family that has lost its loved ones or is still waiting for news of their loved ones,” Semikin said, declaring Tuesday a day of mourning in the Zaporizhzhia region. Komyshuvakha has been treated as a front-line village since November 2025; in June, a Russian drone hit an aid distribution there, wounding four. “With such killings, Russia is sending an absolutely opposite signal – Russia is counting on further killings,” Zelensky said.
After the Truce
The ceasefire around Oleshky lasted five days, 19 hours and 59 minutes, and neither side reported a violation. On Monday, the arguments began.
Ukraine’s General Staff said Russian forces used the pause to rotate units, fortify positions, expand anti-drone protection along roads and bring up ammunition. “The enemy, meanwhile, used the humanitarian pause to set up its positions,” it said, adding that Ukrainian forces had acted strictly within the agreement. Sky News correspondent Stuart Ramsay aired footage from Ukraine’s 34th Marine Brigade showing Russian troops, armored vehicles and supplies moving around the town, and reported, citing Ukrainian intelligence, that one vehicle left a humanitarian convoy to supply Russian positions and that soldiers carried off boxes of food meant for civilians. Ombudsman Dmytro Lubinets said the equipment in the footage was marked with red crosses and used for demining under Ukrainian supervision. “The video can be interpreted in different ways,” he said. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov did not deny the accusation, calling such preparations normal. A senior Ukrainian official told AFP that Moscow rejected Kyiv’s proposal to extend the truce.
Melania Trump called the mission “a success, delivering critical aid to the region and enabling the evacuation of nearly 800 people.” Lubinets said the two sides had agreed not to publish how many went to Ukraine and how many to Russia. “I really don’t want this to turn into a competition over ‘who has fled to which country in greater numbers,'” he said. He said evacuees went through Russia and Belarus because a direct route across the Dnipro would have meant crossing the front line, which the military would never accept, and that they were not put through Russian “filtration.” Some families were still on their way because doctors judged them too fragile to fly, and 22 ambulances took part. Residents who stayed received food, water, medicine, generator fuel and hospital equipment; some now regret not leaving, evacuee Alla Tyshenko told the Kyiv Independent, and an animal rescuer caring for about 70 animals is still waiting for a way out.
Lubinets said he and his Russian counterpart, Yana Lantratova, discussed making aid deliveries at least monthly and extending the model to other villages, and he announced a Civilian Return Center in his office. Peskov said Moscow has “no similar plans at this time.” Zelensky told Fox News he would welcome more: “If the first lady can do this, can continue, it will be very useful.”
A Night of Drones and a Warning
You live in Kherson. For six days you walked the streets without hearing a drone. At 7:40 a.m. on Monday, less than nine hours after the truce ended, one hits a medical facility in the city center. The staff are in the shelter. Twenty minutes later, another drone hits a car in the Korabelnyi district, wounding a 62-year-old woman and a 73-year-old man.
Overnight, Russia launched 193 drones, 75 of them jet-powered, and Ukraine downed 154. Strikes on energy left 10 regions with outages, worst in the Kyiv and Dnipropetrovsk regions, and disrupted Kyiv’s metro and high-speed tram. Across the past day, Russian attacks killed two people and wounded 32. In the Sumy region, a drone hit a car, killing a 70-year-old woman. In Sloviansk, one person was killed, and two more were wounded elsewhere in the Donetsk region, Governor Vadym Filashkin said. Nine were wounded in the Kharkiv region, five in the Odesa region, where a DTEK facility was hit, four in the Zaporizhzhia region and three in the Zhytomyr region, including a child. In the Kherson region, two people were hurt stepping on explosives; a 57-year-old man was wounded in the Nikopol district and a man in the Obukhiv district near Kyiv.
In his evening address, Zelensky warned of worse. “We have intel that Russia is preparing a new massive attack on our country – primarily targeting energy and logistics,” he said. “The assumption is basically that tomorrow the world will be watching the American midterms, and what is happening here in Ukraine, along with our difficulties with air defense and Patriot missiles, will be overlooked.” He said Russia has shifted from power plants to distribution networks, ordered extra monthly pay for repair crews through the winter, and promised: “We will certainly respond to the strike the Russians are preparing right now.”
October’s numbers show what he means. The General Staff said Russia launched 6,473 long-range drones in October, of which 75 percent were downed: 66 percent of the jet-powered ones and 89 percent of the piston-engine ones. The Air Force’s own daily data gave different totals, 6,158 drones and 84 percent downed, and ISW said the reason for the gap is unclear. ISW also found Russia firing more Banderol and Dan-T quasi-cruise missiles and likely stockpiling ballistic missiles to exploit Ukraine’s Patriot shortage.
Ukraine’s military intelligence also described the Gerbera-2, a once-cheap decoy rebuilt as an attack drone with a range of up to 1,200 kilometers, a warhead of up to 25 kilograms and a rear camera to spot interceptors. One found on Poland’s Baltic coast in September was this model, and its parts came from the U.S., China, Taiwan, Switzerland, Ireland and the Netherlands. Air Force spokesperson Yurii Ihnat said Russia launched more than 4,000 jet-powered and 4,740 piston-engine drones in October. “Its area of application may extend beyond the territory of Ukraine,” the agency said.
Borshchahivka
On the outskirts of Kyiv, in the village of Petropavlivska Borshchahivka, a crowd gathered outside a house where National Guard troops held newly mobilized men and soldiers detained for leaving their units. Rumors spread on Telegram that about 40 people were being held hostage in a basement and that one had died. Protesters threw eggs and broke through a brick wall; troops answered with tear gas and shots in the air, Kyiv Independent reporters saw.
Police said the claims of unlawful detention and a death were false and that they had been called by a private ambulance crew that said it was blocked from reaching a man inside. They said the rumors began with a woman claiming to own an ambulance company; investigative outlet Slidstvo.Info reported that the firm closed in 2023. The National Guard’s 1st Azov Corps said four service members had been injured and sent for examination, that no one had died, and that anyone found guilty of violence would be punished. Around 10 p.m., Kyrylo Budanov, head of the Presidential Office, arrived. “I came here to figure out what the hell is going on,” he said. “This is something that simply shouldn’t be happening, and it’s not right.” The circumstances remain under investigation.
Ukrainian National Guard troops present at the scene of a tense standoff with protesters in Petropavlivska Borshchahivka. (The Kyiv Independent)
A Record Day for Russian Losses
Ukraine’s General Staff said Russia lost 2,500 troops killed and wounded on Sunday alone, the highest daily toll of the war, beating the record of 2,250 set on October 21. “On Nov. 1, the Russian army was losing one soldier every 35 seconds,” it said. It compared October’s 54,400 losses to the entire population of the Arctic city of Vorkuta, and put Russia’s total since 2022 at 1,592,770. Its Monday update counted 205 combat engagements over the past day, with 31 Russian attacks in the Pokrovsk sector and 20 near Kostiantynivka. The figures could not be independently verified.
ISW reported no advances by either side on Monday. Russian forces concentrated attacks near Zarichne and Yampolivka by Lyman, while Ukrainian forces counterattacked south of Lyman and near Rai-Oleksandrivka, held positions in Kurtivka east of Druzhkivka, and struck a Russian Irbis counterbattery radar near Peny and an electronic warfare system in Belaya, in the Kursk region, about 30 kilometers from the border. A Ukrainian military source said small Russian groups remain scattered through northwestern Kupyansk, hiding in large multi-story buildings, and that Ukrainian forces will have to hunt down each pocket to clear the town fully. Drone teams of Russia’s 27th Artillery Regiment keep hitting Ukrainian supply routes on the H-20 Sloviansk-Kramatorsk highway, and near Pokrovsk a brigade spokesperson said Russia drops guided bombs daily to “level” villages and uses fog to move guns and infantry forward. Russian bloggers claimed attacks on Bilozerske, north of Dobropillia. Ukrainian forces struck Russian infiltrators southwest of Druzhkivka near Krasnyi Kut and at Komar and Ternuvate near Oleksandrivka. Russian attacks in northern Sumy and Kharkiv, near Velykyi Burluk and Borova, toward Novopavlivka and Hulyaipole and in western Zaporizhzhia gained no ground, while across the Dnipro Russian forces resumed shelling, hitting 16 settlements in the Kherson region.
Ukraine’s military intelligence confirmed that a Su-57, Russia’s most advanced fighter, exploded on October 29 at Akhtubinsk during engine start, blaming in part low-quality fuel after Ukraine’s refinery strikes; it said Russia now imports JET-A1 fuel from Malaysia for its aircraft and jet-powered drones. Russia’s small Su-57 fleet has had a bad year: a Ukrainian drone strike hit two in April, and another reportedly crashed near Moscow in July. Footage showed fire at the Samara oil station near Prosvet, which Russian outlet Astra called Europe’s largest oil tank farm. Presidential adviser Serhiy “Flash” Beskrestnov said Russia is spreading satellite-jamming systems that blind Starlink-guided drones over areas of about 25 square kilometers, now covering almost all key sites in occupied Crimea.
Talk of Talks
German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier said China’s Xi Jinping showed no interest in a three-way summit on Ukraine with Russia and the U.S. when they met in Beijing on Friday. “He explicitly pointed out that this is a European conflict in which Europeans would also have to be at the negotiating table,” Steinmeier said; Xi looked surprised by the idea. Peskov said a Putin-Xi meeting at APEC in Shenzhen was being prepared but had no details on a three-way summit; Trump has said he is open to one on nuclear arms and “other issues, such as Ukraine.” In an interview with CNN Turk published Sunday, Zelensky said he was ready to meet Putin in Turkey, which he called a realistic mediator; the technical talks, he said, would cover a partial energy and maritime ceasefire and prisoner exchanges, leaving a full ceasefire and security guarantees to leaders. Kyiv Post reported that U.S. envoy Steve Witkoff confirmed new talks among Ukraine, Russia and the U.S. in Abu Dhabi on November 10 and 11.
Zelensky also confirmed that Ukraine answered Sunday’s hack of its air-raid app by hacking Russia’s emergency alert app, which then warned Russians of “nuclear warheads” and told them to stock up on food for three weeks. “We just responded on the attack,” he told PBS NewsHour.
Also Today
Putin takes a share of data centers. Putin ordered private data centers to reserve 10 percent of their capacity for the state, available within 24 hours of a request. State operator Rostelecom is negotiating with Nornickel to build data centers underground, Vedomosti reported.
Poland guards its border. Poland sent police counterterrorism units to its border with Kaliningrad after Polish and allied intelligence warned of sabotage and possible armed incursions, and its Territorial Defense Forces are creating a Border Defense Component.
Bulgaria’s new president. Acting President Iliana Iotova, who opposes military aid to Ukraine, won Sunday’s runoff with 57.58 percent against 39.47 percent for pro-Western former Prime Minister Andrey Gyurov. Ursula von der Leyen congratulated her; Prime Minister Rumen Radev’s government has already ended military aid from army stocks and left the Coalition of the Willing.
Russian ships off Scotland. Britain’s Royal Navy said it tracked the Russian spy ship Viktor Leonov watching NATO drills off the Outer Hebrides and intercepted warships escorting sanctioned cargo in the Channel.
Slovakia joins the children’s coalition. Slovakia joined the International Coalition for the Return of Ukrainian Children, weeks after refusing the Toronto Pledge. “Our shared goal is to see these children safely reunited with their families and back home,” State Secretary Marek Estok said.
Hybrid attacks in Europe. Germany’s digital minister, Karsten Wildberger, said Bundestag members’ and officials’ phones may have been hit with spyware after Apple warnings, and a second wave of cyberattacks disrupted refrigeration at more than 100 supermarkets across the EU. Russia’s withdrawal from Europe’s anti-torture convention took effect on Sunday, ending what the anti-torture committee’s president, Alan Mitchell, called “any independent monitoring of places of deprivation of liberty” in Russia.
A plea from journalists. Ukrainian journalists urged foreign colleagues to keep covering the war. “We speak to you from a country where every morning begins with checking whether our families and friends are still alive,” they said.
Farmers and alerts. Farmers in 25 communities with mined land in the Kharkiv, Kherson and Mykolaiv regions can now apply for UN-backed aid to restart production, and air-raid alerts closed shopping centers for a record 32.5 percent of their hours in October, an average of 9.8 lost working days per mall.
Russia’s budget. Bloomberg reported Russia’s deficit is set to widen to 7.3 trillion rubles this year, and Verstka reported a draft plan to delay December pay for Russian troops not fighting in Ukraine.
The Closing
Tonight, rescuers are still digging through a school gym in Komyshuvakha. Two of their own lie among the dead. A truce that brought hundreds of people home ended less than a day before, and Moscow says there will be no other. Ukraine is still offering to stop the killing. It is asking the world, on the eve of a busy day in America, not to look away.
A Prayer for Ukraine
1. For Those Who Defend
Lord of hosts, cover the soldiers near Lyman, Kupyansk, Pokrovsk and Druzhkivka, who hold the line as fog hides the enemy’s approach. Steady the air defenders who face a promised storm of missiles, and the engineers who keep the lights on between the strikes. Give them courage, rest and the strength to endure the winter ahead, and bring them home to their families.
2. For the Wounded and the Grieving
God of all comfort, receive the dead of Komyshuvakha, who came only for bread and found death instead. Receive the rescuers Denys and Oleksii and the four police officers who ran toward danger to save others. Comfort their wives and children. Heal the wounded, and give strength to the families still waiting beside the rubble for news of the missing.
3. For Those Who Lead
King of kings, give President Zelensky wisdom as talks draw near, and give his negotiators clarity, patience and courage in every hard hour. Open the eyes of the world’s leaders to see who extends a truce and who refuses it. Let no summit be held where Ukraine has no seat, and let justice not be traded away for comfort or convenience.
4. For the People of Oleshky
Faithful God, watch over those who left Oleshky and those still on the road, too frail to fly. Protect those who stayed behind, and the woman who will not leave her animals. Let aid keep flowing to them, month after month, and let the bridge of mercy built this week not be burned by those who would rather wage war.
5. For a People Who Keep Standing
Father, when rumors spread and fear runs high, keep Ukraine united and truthful. Sustain the journalists who tell its story, the farmers who clear their fields by hand, and every family that wakes to check that loved ones are alive. In Your mercy, in Your justice, in Your time — bring this war to its end, and let the ending be worthy of what Ukraine has endured.