The longest ceasefire of the Ukraine war has come to an end in the eastern Kherson region after Russia rejected Ukraine’s proposal to extend it, Ukrainian officials said.
The unusual halt in fighting began early Tuesday and allowed a humanitarian mission to reach the Russian-occupied city of Oleshky, offering a brief respite as the war enters its fifth year.
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Neither side reported breaches once the truce took effect. One Ukrainian lawmaker called it the “biggest de-escalation since 2022”.
“The ceasefire, which was in effect from 27 October to 1 November has ended,” Ukraine’s Parliament Commissioner for Human Rights, Dmytro Lubinets, said.
US-brokered negotiations between Russia and Ukraine are expected to restart this month after effectively stalling when the United States and Israel launched joint strikes on Iran in February.
‘Fresh air’ for Kherson residents
Russia’s full-scale invasion in 2022 has devastated parts of southern and eastern Ukraine, killed hundreds of thousands of soldiers and civilians, and driven millions from their homes.
For residents of Kherson, the pause brought a fleeting sense of relief.
“We have to use this time to get things done,” said Volodymyr Omeltchenko, a 38-year-old gardener. “We’re pruning the rose bushes for winter.”
Pope Leo, who had urged Russia to agree to a truce in Oleshky, said he hoped the pause would “strengthen the desire for dialogue and lead to new concrete peace initiatives”.
People evacuated from Oleshky react as they meet in Chernihiv, Ukraine
A Ukrainian military officer, speaking anonymously, feared the renewed fighting could be “worse than before”.
During the lull, Russian forces stationed across the Dnipro river had reportedly brought in additional troops, moved ammunition supplies and used surveillance drones to gather information about Ukrainian positions, the officer said.
Kherson regional governor Oleksandr Prokudin urged residents to remain especially alert once the ceasefire expired and to “respond immediately to warnings about Russian attacks”.
Later Sunday, Ukraine’s air force and anti-disinformation centre said they believed the nation’s air-raid alert system had been compromised after the application issued false warnings of a radiation emergency.
“The Air Alarm application has probably been subjected to hostile interference,” the force said in a message. “There is no radiation threat.”
Refinery reportedly hit
Strikes continued elsewhere as Russia and Ukraine traded attacks.
Russia said a drone had hit an “industrial enterprise” east of Moscow overnight.
Ukrainian media, meanwhile, reported that Kyiv had targeted the Kstovo oil refinery, describing it as “one of Russia’s largest oil refineries, producing fuel and lubricants”.
Kyiv has repeatedly attacked Russian oil and gas facilities, arguing that the strikes are justified retaliation for Russian assaults on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure.
US President Donald Trump had urged Kyiv to end the attacks, blaming them for higher diesel prices that analysts have linked to the war in Iran.
Ukraine’s energy ministry said new power cuts were reported across the country on Sunday, including in Kyiv, after Russian strikes hit Ukrainian energy facilities.
Russian-installed authorities said Ukrainian attacks killed five people in occupied parts of Ukraine between late Saturday and Sunday afternoon.
Both Moscow and Kyiv deny deliberately targeting civilians.
Russia controls roughly a fifth of Ukrainian territory, including the Crimean peninsula it annexed in 2014, most of the eastern Donetsk and Lugansk regions — known collectively as the Donbas — and large areas of the southern Zaporizhzhia and Kherson regions.
