Kherson braces for renewed fighting as Oleshky ceasefire comes to an end

A localized ceasefire along the Dnipro front line, linked to the Russian-occupied city of Oleshky in Kherson region, is due to expire on Nov. 1, and residents of Kherson are preparing for the return of daily attacks, the Kyiv Independent reported.

According to Ukrainian Ombudsman Dmytro Lubinets, the truce runs until 11 p.m. on Nov. 1. After that, the outlet said, strikes across the river are expected to resume.

The pause began on Oct. 27 along the stretch of front that follows the river through Kherson region. The Kyiv Independent described it as unprecedented in scale and length during the four and a half years of full-scale war. It was agreed as part of a US-mediated humanitarian mission to Oleshky, which lies on the opposite bank from Kherson.

Throughout the truce, the morning updates from regional Governor Oleksandr Prokudin, usually filled with reports of attacks on Kherson and nearby riverbank communities, said that none had been recorded.

A city briefly exhales

The quiet drew residents onto the streets in numbers not seen since Ukraine retook the city in November 2022, the outlet said. “People can just feel calm and walk around, ride a bike, not run from one place to another,” Iryna Leonova told the newspaper. “It’s not that life has changed in the last few days, it simply returned.”

Neighbourhoods closest to the river, known as the “red zone” because of the constant threat from Russian drones, became reachable again. Inna Sapai, who had moved away from her home in the Ostriv district to a safer part of the city, used the lull to run errands and check on the property. The outlet cautioned that the area is still not fully safe, since mines left by Russian forces remain a hazard, as an incident involving a Marines press officer on Oct. 28 showed.

Thousands of former residents came back to inspect their homes and collect belongings, according to the Kyiv Independent. Markets that had been nearly deserted filled up again, and city workers repaired critical infrastructure that the drone threat had previously made impossible to reach.

Fear of what follows

Behind the relief, the outlet reported, runs a sense of how short-lived the calm is. A local resident named Natalia, who did not give her surname, said she felt little real joy because she knew everyone would leave again within days. She described a “great fear of the unknown” and said people worry the situation “can only get worse.”

The city’s history explains that anxiety. The Kyiv Independent recalled eight months of Russian occupation in 2022, marked by torture, looting and deportations, followed by the flooding caused by the destruction of the Kakhovka Dam. Since 2024, it said, Russian drones have systematically hunted civilians in what is widely called a “human safari.”

The newspaper argued that the Oleshky truce showed the world how swiftly fighting along this line can stop when Moscow chooses to stop it. Residents, however, expect that with hostilities resuming, the worst of Russia’s effort to empty the city of life may still be to come. The outlet did not report any plan to extend the ceasefire or to follow it with a broader arrangement, so what happens after 11 p.m. on Nov. 1 remains unclear.