Kherson truce ends as Russian strikes disrupt Ukraine’s power supply

A localized ceasefire around the Russian-occupied town of Oleshky in Ukraine’s Kherson region ended on Sunday after Russia declined an offer from Kyiv to extend it, Ukrainian officials said. The six-day pause enabled civilians to leave the area and allowed humanitarian supplies to reach residents, but it did not halt fighting elsewhere in Ukraine. Ukraine’s Parliament Commissioner for Human Rights, Dmytro Lubinets, confirmed that the truce, which ran from October 27 to November 1, had ended.

He described it as an important humanitarian effort. A Ukrainian official told AFP that Kyiv had proposed an extension through the Foreign Ministry but that “the Russians don’t want to.” Neither side reported violations during the pause. Ukrainian officials said 167 more civilians were evacuated from the partially occupied Kherson region shortly before the truce expired, including 22 children and 21 people with limited mobility.

Earlier reports said around 2,000 civilians were in Oleshky when the ceasefire began and could choose to leave for territory controlled by Ukraine or Russia, or remain. The BBC reported emotional reunions after evacuees completed a difficult route through Russian-occupied territory and southern Russia before traveling through Belarus and returning to Ukraine. The youngest evacuee was reported to be one year old and the oldest 94.

Local authorities nevertheless warned residents to remain alert and stay away from areas near the Dnipro river. Residents described the temporary pause as a “breath of fresh air”, according to AFP. Pope Leo XIV, who had urged Russia to accept the truce, said he hoped it would encourage dialogue.

A Ukrainian military officer cited by AFP expressed concern that Russian forces had used the lull to assemble troops and ammunition and gather information about Ukrainian positions, predicting that fighting could worsen. While the Kherson pause held, Russian attacks elsewhere continued. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said strikes had hit energy infrastructure in four regions overnight, leaving hundreds of thousands of homes without power.

Some connections were restored, but emergency electricity cuts remained in place across the country. More than 60,000 people were still without electricity in the Dnipropetrovsk region by early Sunday evening, according to its governor. The BBC reported that Kyiv faced power cuts for much of the day and that water supplies were also disrupted.

Ukrainian officials said repair crews were working to restore service. A Russian drone attack on Koziatyn in the Vinnytsia region killed at least three people, including a 13-year-old girl, and injured four others, according to Ukrainian authorities. The reports differed slightly on the broader casualty picture: DW cited three deaths and four injuries, while the BBC described the overnight strike as killing two people, including the girl.

Russian attacks were also reported in Chernivtsi, where one person was injured and an administrative building badly damaged. Zelensky said the intensity of Russian strikes had been “extremely high” and renewed his appeal to the United States, Europe and other partners for Patriot missile systems. He said Ukraine was also preparing for talks involving the United States and Russia after his meeting with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, though the supplied reports gave no further details about the proposed discussions.