Fighting resumes in Kherson as six-day Ukraine truce ends

Kherson — Fighting has returned to Ukraine's Kherson region, ending a six-day ceasefire that had been the longest since Russia's full-scale invasion began in 2022. Local authorities said Moscow struck a medical facility in Kherson city centre on Monday morning, and that a 62-year-old woman and a 73-year-old man were injured when a Russian drone hit their car.

The truce, brokered by US First Lady Melania Trump, had allowed hundreds of civilians trapped in the Russian-occupied town of Oleshky to be evacuated to Ukrainian-held territory, where many were reunited with relatives on Saturday. Those who stayed will receive monthly aid deliveries, according to Russia's human rights ombudsman Yana Lantratova, who credited Mrs Trump's mediation for that arrangement too.

Both sides now accuse the other of exploiting the quiet. Ukraine's General Staff said "the enemy used the humanitarian pause to set up their positions", citing troop rotations, anti-drone equipment on the roads and ammunition deliveries. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov, in effect, agreed it cuts both ways, calling it "reasonable to assume" Kyiv also regrouped — "a completely standard practice", the BBC reported.

The ceasefire produced a rare tableau: Lantratova and her Ukrainian counterpart, Dmytro Lubinets, travelling into Oleshky together and thanking each other publicly. Both called for the model to be repeated, and Kyiv said it would observe similar truces nationally. Moscow has flatly ruled that out. Peskov called Oleshky "an isolated case" with "no similar plans or initiatives", and even during the truce Russian air strikes continued elsewhere in Ukraine.

The politics are not hard to read. Russian state TV figure Artyom Sheynin said he understood the need to "create a 'success story' ahead of the elections" for President Donald Trump, whose wife "achieved a ceasefire". Kyiv, reliant on US intelligence and Patriot missiles ahead of another winter, had its own reasons to comply.

Overnight, Ukrainian drones struck energy facilities in four Russian regions, hitting a Samara oil refinery for the fifth time in a month. The next marker is Tuesday's US midterm elections — after which Washington's appetite for further truce-broking may become clearer.