Kherson ceasefire ends as winter strikes resume

The brief pause in fighting in Kherson ended Sunday evening.

The localized truce, which began Tuesday, marked the longest period of relative calm between Kyiv and Moscow since the full-scale invasion began nearly five years ago. The White House credited U.S. First Lady Melania Trump with brokering the arrangement. The ceasefire allowed for the evacuation of approximately 2,000 civilians from the front-line city of Oleshky. Residents were given the choice to move to Ukrainian or Russian controlled territory or stay with new supplies of food and medicine. Exact numbers for those who remained were not released.

Oleksandr Knyha, head of the Mykola Kulish Kherson Regional Academic Music and Drama Theater, opened a concert Sunday by telling the audience to hold on. The theater has performed every weekend for four years without canceling a show. About 100 of the company’s 120 staff members work in Kherson, and none have evacuated. They now perform in a basement and are equipping an additional bomb shelter. Costume maker Alla Vasylenko, 58, said the silence of the truce still frightens her. She has no plans to leave because she has 10 dogs and the cost of travel, between 30,000 and 50,000 hryvnias, is steep. She believes the conflict will return to its previous state because trusting Russia means not trusting oneself.

Strikes continued elsewhere despite the local truce. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Russia is targeting Ukraine’s energy systems before winter to exploit a shortage of air defenses. He stated that hundreds of thousands of families lost power overnight. Zelenskyy described the intensity of the strikes as extremely high, noting that Russia is trying to take maximum advantage of the lack of ballistic missile interceptors.

In the Vinnytsia region, a Russian drone hit the grounds of a vocational school, killing three people including a 13-year-old girl. Four others were wounded, including two 5-year-old girls and a 16-year-old boy. Regional authorities reported that drone attacks also targeted the Kyiv region for a second consecutive day, wounding a woman and damaging homes and energy infrastructure.

Ukraine’s air force reported that Moscow attacked with 433 drones overnight and that 371 were destroyed or suppressed. In Russia, local Governor Gleb Nikitin said more than 100 Ukrainian drones were shot down over Nizhny Novgorod region. An industrial building in Kstovo sustained significant damage, and Russian media reported a blaze at the local oil refinery. Local officials placed limits on gasoline sales in the region after lines formed at gas stations. Diesel sales remained unaffected. Zelenskyy said Kyiv struck a factory for missile components and air defense facilities in Russia’s Rostov region.

The theater in Kherson staged a concert featuring a musical map of Ukraine on the final day of the ceasefire. Knyha said the company’s job is to unite people and give them hope.