In the quiet hours of a Sunday night, a six-day pause in one occupied Ukrainian town quietly ran out, the way many small mercies in long wars do. For a week, roughly two thousand people in Oleshky were allowed to leave or to be resupplied without the usual violence, and some of them now stand in reception halls in the north, speaking of grass and dogs eaten when nothing else remained. Yet the calm was narrow, and the war beyond its borders never stopped: drones fell between a school and an apartment block, and power went out for families who had little to spare. The pause shows that even a bit
Oleshky Ceasefire Ends With No Reported Violations as Russian Strikes Cut Power Across Ukraine
A Russian drone attack on Koziatyn killed at least three people, including a 13-year-old girl, and injured four others, including three children.
Six days without a single reported violation, then the strikes went on
Mark
Why does a truce limited to one town matter this much?
Mimi
It's the longest of the war, and it moved people. About 2,000 civilians were in Oleshky, and evacuees crossed Russia and Belarus to reach Ukraine.
Luke
But it was six days, and it ended when Russia declined an extension. That refusal comes from a Ukrainian official speaking to AFP, not from Moscow.
Mark
Both sides reported no violations. Is that a sign of something larger?
Mimi
One Ukrainian lawmaker called it the biggest de-escalation since 2022. Others were less hopeful.
Luke
Right, and that's one lawmaker's description. The anonymous officer's claim that Russia massed troops and ammunition is also one unnamed source's account, not something confirmed.
Mark
What did the evacuees say?
Mimi
Years of isolation, shortages and shelling. Some said they ate grass and dogs.
Luke
Those are personal accounts given to DW. They're powerful, but we don't have a count of how many people described that.
Mark
And elsewhere?
Mimi
Power cut for hundreds of thousands of families in four regions, and three dead in Koziatyn, including a 13-year-old girl.
Luke
The Kstovo refinery as the target is a Ukrainian media report. The Russian governor only said an industrial facility was damaged.
O Pulso
- The six-day truce in Oleshky expired at 11 p.m. Sunday, and Russia refused Ukraine's offer to extend it.
- About 167 more civilians were evacuated in the final hours, including 22 children and 21 people with limited mobility.
- A Ukrainian officer warns that Russian forces used the lull to regroup, and fighting will return worse than before.
- A drone strike in Koziatyn killed at least three people, including a 13-year-old girl, while Russian attacks cut power to hundreds of thousands of families.
In the quiet hours of a Sunday night, a six-day pause in one occupied Ukrainian town quietly ran out, the way many small mercies in long wars do. For a week, roughly two thousand people in Oleshky were allowed to leave or to be resupplied without the usual violence, and some of them now stand in reception halls in the north, speaking of grass and dogs eaten when nothing else remained. Yet the calm was narrow, and the war beyond its borders never stopped: drones fell between a school and an apartment block, and power went out for families who had little to spare. The pause shows that even a bitter conflict can make room for mercy, and it also reminds us how fragile that room remains.
At 11 p.m. on Sunday, the longest truce of Russia's full-scale war expired in Oleshky, a Russian-occupied town in southern Kherson. For six days, from October 27 to November 1, neither side reported a single violation, and the pause gave residents a chance to leave or to receive supplies. Ukraine had offered to extend the arrangement, but Russia declined.
About 2,000 civilians had been in the town when the truce began. Many had lived under occupation for four years, surviving on little more than what they could find. On the final day, the Ukrainian military evacuated another 167 people, among them children and the elderly. At a reception point in northern Ukraine, relatives and volunteers welcomed them, and evacuees spoke of isolation, hunger and constant shelling.
Not everyone trusted the calm. A Ukrainian officer warned that Russian forces had used the week to bring in troops, ammunition and intelligence, and that the coming fighting would be worse. Elsewhere the war never paused. Russian strikes hit energy infrastructure in four regions, leaving hundreds of thousands of families without power, and in Koziatyn a drone exploded between an apartment block and a school, killing three people, including a 13-year-old girl. Ukraine answered with a large drone attack on an industrial site in Russia, though its claims could not be independently verified.
Diplomacy continues in parallel. Zelenskyy discussed a planned three-way summit with Turkey's president, while Moscow insists early talks should be trilateral and exclude Europe.
At 11 p.m. local time on Sunday, the longest truce of Russia's full-scale war in Ukraine expired. It had covered only Oleshky, a Russian-occupied town in the southern Kherson region, and the land around it. It ran six days, from Tuesday, October 27, to November 1, and neither side reported a single violation. Ukrainian officials said Russia turned down an offer to extend it.
A senior Ukrainian official told AFP that Ukraine's Foreign Ministry had proposed the extension but that "the Russians don't want to." The White House says First Lady Melania Trump brokered the arrangement. Pope Leo XIV had pressed Russia to agree to it. Dmytro Lubinets, Ukraine's Parliament Commissioner for Human Rights, confirmed the end and called the truce an important step in joint humanitarian efforts with Russia. One Ukrainian lawmaker described it as the biggest de-escalation since 2022.
The pause had a practical purpose. About 2,000 civilians were in Oleshky when it began. They could leave for Ukrainian-held or Russian-held territory, or stay in a city that was resupplied during the truce. Residents had lived under Russian occupation for four years, and conditions worsened this year. Evacuees traveled by bus through Russia and Belarus into Ukraine. On Sunday, shortly before the deadline, Ukraine's general staff said the military had evacuated another 167 civilians from Kherson, including 22 children and 21 people with limited mobility.
At a reception point in northern Ukraine, relatives, volunteers and locals welcomed the arrivals. Speaking to DW, evacuees described years of isolation, food shortages and regular shelling. Some said they survived by eating grass and dogs when supplies ran out. In the Kherson region, gardener Volodymyr Omeltchenko, 38, told AFP the quiet was a breath of fresh air, and that he was using it to prune rose bushes for winter.
Not everyone read the calm as a good sign. A Ukrainian military officer, speaking anonymously to AFP, said fighting would be worse than before once it resumed. He said Russian forces had used the week to gather new troops and ammunition and to collect intelligence on Ukrainian positions. Governor Olexander Prokudin told residents to stay alert and keep away from areas near the Dnipro river, where Russian drone and artillery strikes remained intense. President Donald Trump called on social media for Oleshky to become the starting point for lasting peace.
Elsewhere the war did not pause. Overnight Russian strikes hit energy infrastructure in four regions: Dnipro, Vinnytsia, Zhytomyr and Khmelnytskyi. President Zelenskyy said substations, transformers and power lines were targeted and that hundreds of thousands of families were without power. He accused Russia of exploiting Ukraine's shortage of interceptors for ballistic missiles and urged the US and Europe to speed up deliveries, saying they cannot take years. In Koziatyn, in central Ukraine, a Russian drone exploded between a residential building and a school, killing at least three people, including a 13-year-old girl. Four were injured, among them two five-year-olds, a 16-year-old boy and a 24-year-old man. A strike in Chernivtsi region injured one person and badly damaged an administrative building.
Ukraine also hit back. The governor of Nizhny Novgorod, Gleb Nikitin, reported a massive drone attack that destroyed more than 100 drones and caused significant damage to an industrial facility. Ukrainian media said the target was the Kstovo refinery. That could not be independently verified. Russian-backed authorities in Luhansk said Ukrainian strikes killed at least four people since Sunday evening. Separately, the Ukrainian Air Force said its public air raid app was hacked and briefly showed a nuclear alert for Kyiv. It said there was no radiation threat.
Diplomacy continues alongside the fighting. Zelenskyy met Turkish President Erdogan in Istanbul on Saturday and said they discussed preparations for a three-way summit of Ukraine, Russia and the US in the first half of November, plus a Black Sea grain corridor. Kremlin aide Yuri Ushakov said Russia wants the first rounds to be trilateral, without Europe. Earlier Turkish-brokered talks produced no lasting peace.
Citações Notáveis
The ceasefire, which was in effect from October 27 to November 1, has ended.— Dmytro Lubinets, Ukraine's Parliament Commissioner for Human Rights
Russia is destroying infrastructure and killing our people right now, and decisions on air defense must be implemented now.— Volodymyr Zelenskyy, paraphrased
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