Kherson ceasefire ends after evacuations from Russian-occupied Oleshky

The longest localised truce of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine expired on the evening of November 1, 2026, after Russia declined to extend a pause that had covered the Kherson region and the occupied town of Oleshky.

The ceasefire began early on October 27 and was due to end at 22:59 Ukrainian time. It was mediated with the involvement of U.S. First Lady Melania Trump and, according to some accounts, Pope Leo. Ukrainian officials said neither side reported violations inside the agreed zone during the six days. Outside it, Russian strikes continued, cutting power to hundreds of thousands of households and damaging infrastructure in other regions.

The pause allowed the evacuation of residents trapped in Oleshky, which has been under Russian occupation since the first weeks of the 2022 invasion. An estimated 1,700 to 2,000 people remained in the town itself, with several thousand more in surrounding areas. Roads had been mined and subject to drone attack; residents faced shortages of food, water and electricity. Ukrainian forces and local authorities evacuated 167 people on the final day of the truce, including 22 children and 21 people with limited mobility. Earlier movements brought the total number who left under the arrangement into the hundreds.

Ukraine’s Parliament Commissioner for Human Rights Dmytro Lubinets confirmed the ceasefire had ended and called it an important step in joint humanitarian efforts. A Ukrainian official told AFP that Kyiv had offered an extension and that Russia refused. Kherson regional governor Oleksandr Prokudin urged residents to stay out of so-called red zones near the Dnipro river as the pause expired.

The arrangement was the most significant multi-day reduction in fighting since 2022, though it remained strictly local. Russian units on the opposite bank of the Dnipro used the quiet to move troops and ammunition, according to Ukrainian military sources. Residents in Ukrainian-controlled Kherson city described the days as a rare chance to move freely and tend gardens. Many expected intensified strikes once the clock ran out.

Power outages linked to ongoing Russian drone and missile attacks affected roughly 280,000 households across Ukraine around the same period, including large numbers in the Dnipro and Kyiv regions. Separate reports noted apparent cyber attacks on air-raid alert applications in both Ukraine and Russia that generated false warnings.

The end of the Oleshky corridor returns the southern front to the pattern that has defined it for nearly five years: daily drone and artillery fire across the river, restricted civilian movement, and no broader diplomatic mechanism currently in place to repeat the limited humanitarian opening.