Kherson Truce Ends; Civilians Left Between Armies

A six-day ceasefire in Ukraine’s Kherson region ended Sunday night without any reported violations or an announced extension. Hundreds of residents of Russian-occupied Oleshky used the pause to leave in a rare joint operation between Kyiv and Moscow. The truce is over. Civilians again face choices shaped by the armed authorities controlling the territory around them.

A narrow corridor, no lasting guarantee

Ukraine’s military said it evacuated 167 more people from threatened areas of the southern Kherson region on Sunday. The group included 22 children and 21 people with limited mobility who needed special assistance. “Units of civil-military cooperation of the 'South' group of forces, in cooperation with representatives of local authorities, evacuated 167 civilians to safer points in the Kherson region,” Ukraine’s General Staff wrote on Telegram.

About 2,000 civilians were in Oleshky when the ceasefire began. They could evacuate to Ukrainian-controlled territory, Russian-occupied territory, or remain in the city with replenished food and medical supplies. The truce covered Oleshky and the surrounding area and was due to expire at 10:59 p.m. Ukraine time (20:59 GMT). United States First Lady Melania Trump and Pope Leo XIV were involved in mediation efforts.

France 24 reported that Oleshky residents who had requested evacuation reunited with loved ones in Ukraine on Saturday, October 31. Russian forces occupy the city, which sits on the front line and faces a humanitarian crisis, with civilians lacking basic necessities. A localized ceasefire had held since Tuesday. The arrangement created room to move and receive supplies, but the authorities involved announced no extension when it ended.

Promises against the threat

Melania Trump said on social media that the ceasefire gave residents “the freedom to move, access to food, clean water, medicine, plus a renewed sense of dignity without the constant threat of attack.” She added: “Let Oleshky become the starting point for lasting peace.” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov, quoted by Russian news agencies, said Moscow viewed positively the operation in Oleshky and coordination between the two countries’ human rights commissioners. A Ukrainian official told AFP that Russia reportedly refused Kyiv’s Foreign Ministry proposal to extend the ceasefire.

Kherson Governor Oleksandr Prokudin urged residents to stay alert as the truce neared its end. “I also strongly urge you not to visit the so-called 'red zones' – areas and settlements near the Dnipro [River],” he wrote on Telegram. “The intensity of Russian strikes there remains high, and the threat to life is extremely high.” His warning made the boundary plain: residents must judge where they can go as military strikes continue.

In Kherson city, one of the region’s remaining areas under Ukrainian control, residents stayed calm. “Don't be afraid, keep holding on,” Oleksandr Knyha, head of the Mykola Kulish Kherson Regional Academic Music and Drama Theater, told an audience as he opened a concert. Knyha is from Oleshky and used to commute to Kherson for work. “That's also what keeps me here,” he told the Associated Press.

War carries on beyond the truce

The ceasefire ended as fighting continued elsewhere. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Russian strikes on Sunday left hundreds of thousands of households without power, as Russia continued targeting Ukraine’s energy systems before winter. He said attacks on power infrastructure in four Ukrainian regions overnight cut electricity to hundreds of thousands of households.

Ukraine’s State Emergency Service said a Russian drone strike on the grounds of a vocational school in Vinnytsia killed three people, including a 13-year-old girl, and wounded four others. Russian drone attacks targeting Kyiv region for a second consecutive day wounded a woman and damaged homes, energy infrastructure and a retail establishment, regional authorities said.

Ukraine’s Air Force said Russian forces attacked Ukraine with 433 drones overnight, of which 371 were destroyed or suppressed. Russia’s Nizhny Novgorod region governor, Gleb Nikitin, said more than 100 Ukrainian drones were shot down over the region. Russian media reported the attack sparked a blaze at the Kstovo oil refinery. Zelenskyy said Ukraine also struck a factory for missile components and air defence facilities in Russia’s southern Rostov region. “We are justly defending ourselves against Russian aggression and doing everything to reduce Russia's capability to continue it,” he said. Officials described the six-day pause as the longest multi-day truce between Russia and Ukraine, with no violations reported. The people who needed it most still have no announced extension.