KHERSON, Ukraine — A rare localized ceasefire in Ukraine’s southeastern Kherson region expired Sunday night, marking the end of the most significant pause in fighting between Moscow and Kyiv since the full-scale Russian invasion began nearly five years ago.
The six-day truce, which took effect early Tuesday and concluded at 10:59 p.m. local time, allowed hundreds of civilians to flee the Russian-occupied town of Oleshky through a complex humanitarian corridor. Brokered through mediation by U.S. First Lady Melania Trump and with the involvement of Pope Leo XIV, the agreement held without reported violations on the ground, though officials said Moscow declined a Ukrainian proposal to extend it.
Evacuations from a Besieged Town
An estimated 2,000 residents were inside Oleshky when the temporary truce took effect. Besieged by fighting and battered by floods following the 2023 collapse of the Nova Kakhovka dam, the town had run out of food and medical supplies after deliveries stopped earlier in the year, leaving civilians to survive under extreme shortages.
During the pause, residents were permitted to relocate to Ukrainian-held territory, move to Russian-occupied zones, or remain behind with refreshed aid supplies. Those heading into Ukraine undertook an arduous journey across minefields, traveling through occupied Crimea into southwestern Russia, then flying to Gomel, Belarus, before boarding buses to the Ukrainian border. Ukrainian Human Rights Commissioner Dmytro Lubinets traveled directly to Oleshky to help oversee the transfers alongside Russian officials.
Separate from the Oleshky corridor, the Ukrainian military announced Sunday that civil-military units evacuated an additional 167 civilians from threatened zones in Kherson, including 22 children and 21 people requiring specialized mobility care.
“The ceasefire across Oleshky and the surrounding Kherson region has provided residents with the freedom to move, access to food, clean water, medicine, plus a renewed sense of dignity without the constant threat of attack,” Trump said in a statement on social media, expressing hope that the effort would become “the starting point for lasting peace.”
Strikes Persist Across the Country
While guns fell silent around Oleshky, the broader conflict showed no respite elsewhere. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy reported Sunday that Russian aerial bombardments knocked out electrical power to hundreds of thousands of households across four regions overnight, targeting critical energy systems ahead of winter.
Ukraine’s air force stated that Moscow launched 433 drones overnight, with 371 shot down or electronically suppressed. In the Vinnytsia region, an unmanned aerial strike on a vocational school killed three people, including a 13-year-old girl, and wounded four others, according to emergency officials. Further drone strikes hit Kyiv’s outskirts, injuring a woman and damaging power infrastructure.
Ukrainian forces launched retaliatory strikes deep inside Russian territory. Russian regional authorities confirmed that more than 100 Ukrainian drones were downed over the Nizhny Novgorod region east of Moscow, where local reporting indicated a fire erupted at an oil refinery in Kstovo, prompting gasoline sales restrictions. Zelenskyy also confirmed strikes against an air defense facility and a missile component factory in Russia’s southern Rostov region.
Apprehension on the Front Line
Across the river in Ukrainian-held Kherson city, civilians prepared for the immediate resumption of hostilities. Regional Governor Oleksandr Prokudin warned residents against entering waterfront areas along the Dnipro River, noting that the risk from Russian shelling remained severe.
At the Mykola Kulish Kherson Regional Academic Music and Drama Theater, performers continued their weekend schedule inside a basement venue, just as they have throughout the conflict. Theater director Oleksandr Knyha, an Oleshky native, said the ensemble had no intention of stopping performances despite reports that Russian forces had massed additional personnel and weapons nearby.
Whether the diplomatic opening will yield broader negotiations remains uncertain. Russian officials have pointed toward prospective trilateral talks involving the U.S., Russia and Ukraine in Abu Dhabi later this month, but Russian authorities have not indicated any willingness to expand regional truces along the broader front line.
