Kherson truce lapses as no side announces an extension

The Kherson truce, the longest pause of the Ukraine war, was due to lapse on Sunday evening because neither side said it would extend it.

Melania Trump brokered the pause, and it covered only the Kherson region.

How the Kherson truce began

The pause started early on Tuesday. It allowed a humanitarian mission to reach Oleshky, a city that Russian forces occupy, as the war grinds through its fifth year.

Neither side reported violations once the truce took hold. One Ukrainian lawmaker called it the “biggest de-escalation since 2022.”

The war began with Russia’s full-scale invasion in 2022. Fighting has ruined parts of eastern and southern Ukraine. Hundreds of thousands of soldiers and civilians have died, and millions have fled their homes.

Residents enjoy a short calm

Residents of Kherson welcomed the quiet of the Kherson truce. One of them, a 38-year-old gardener named Volodymyr Omeltchenko, called the ceasefire a “breath of fresh air.”

“We have to use this time to get things done,” he said, adding that he was pruning rose bushes for winter.

Pope Leo had called on Russia to halt fire around Oleshky. He said he hoped the pause would “strengthen the desire for dialogue” and lead to new peace initiatives.

Fears after the Kherson truce

One Ukrainian military officer, who spoke on condition of anonymity, feared the fighting would turn “worse than before” once it restarted.

The officer said Russian troops on the far bank of the Dnipro used the calm to bring in fresh forces and ammunition. They also gathered intelligence on Ukrainian positions with surveillance drones, he said.

Strikes continue elsewhere

Both sides traded strikes in other places on Sunday. Russia said a drone hit an industrial enterprise east of Moscow overnight.

Media in Ukraine said Kyiv struck the Kstovo refinery, described as one of Russia’s biggest. Kyiv has repeatedly hit Russian oil and gas sites, and it calls that fair retaliation for Russian attacks on its energy network.

Donald Trump has pressed Kyiv to stop such attacks. He blames them for higher diesel costs, although analysts link those costs to the Iran war.

Meanwhile, new Russian strikes on energy sites caused outages across Ukraine on Sunday, the energy ministry said, and Kyiv lost power too.

Authorities that Russia installed said five people died in occupied territory in Ukrainian strikes from late Saturday to Sunday afternoon. Moscow and Kyiv both deny targeting civilians.

The Kherson truce and the wider picture

Russia now holds roughly a fifth of its neighbour, including the Crimean peninsula that it annexed in 2014. Most of Donetsk and Lugansk in the east are also under its control.

Talks mediated by the US, involving Moscow and Kyiv, restart this month. The humanitarian mission to Oleshky was the main practical result of the pause. They froze after the February US-Israeli strikes on Iran. Analysts and local officers expect heavier fighting now that the regional pause has lapsed. For now, the Kherson truce has ended, and residents brace for what comes next.