Six-Day Oleshky Ceasefire Expires as Ukraine Evacuates 167 More Civilians From the Kherson Region

A six-day local ceasefire around the Russian-held town of Oleshky expired on Sunday, and Ukraine's military said it evacuated 167 people from threatened areas of the southern Kherson region as the pause ended - two days after buses carried residents out of Oleshky itself, Reuters reported. The ceasefire, reached after mediation efforts by U.S. First Lady Melania Trump and with the involvement of Pope Leo, expired at midnight Moscow time (2100 GMT). There was no immediate indication of any resumption of hostilities on either side, and the pause was the longest local one since Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

Ukraine's General Staff said its units, working with local authorities, evacuated 167 civilians to safer points in the Kherson region, including 22 children and 21 people with limited mobility who required special assistance. Ukraine's human rights ombudsman, Dmytro Lubinets, writing on Telegram, said both sides had "upheld the obligations they undertook throughout the duration of this period," and that he and Russia's human rights commissioner, Yana Lantratova, were "exploring possibilities to continue similar humanitarian efforts" - adding, "It is important to maintain this interaction mechanism so that we can keep helping people and saving lives." Melania Trump, writing on X, said the ceasefire "has provided residents with the freedom to move, access to food, clean water, medicine, plus a renewed sense of dignity without the constant threat of attack." The pope said he hoped the cooperation in Oleshky would pave the way for broader peace efforts, and Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Russia had a positive view of how the operation was conducted and of the coordination between the two countries' human rights commissioners.

The ceasefire, in place since Tuesday, allowed roads to be demined and food, medicines and other supplies to be brought into Oleshky, which lies on the Dnipro River opposite the Ukrainian-held city of Kherson. On Saturday, residents who chose to leave for Ukraine crossed after a circuitous journey - by bus through Crimea to the Russian town of Anapa, then by air to Belarus and on to Ukraine - in an operation Lantratova said began with 25 buses and nine ambulances; how many residents chose to stay was not known. As the expiry neared, Kherson region governor Oleksandr Prokudin urged residents to be vigilant and not to visit the so-called "red zones" near the Dnipro, where, he wrote, the intensity of Russian strikes remains high. Fighting continued elsewhere in Ukraine on Sunday: regional governors and emergency services reported one death in a strike in the Sumy region and at least one in the central Vinnytsia region, Reuters said.