Fighting Returns to Kherson After Record Six-Day Truce, Medical Facility Reported Hit

Fighting has resumed in Ukraine's Kherson region. A six-day ceasefire had silenced the guns in this front-line region for the first time in years. It was the longest ceasefire since Russia's full-scale invasion began in 2022.

The ceasefire allowed hundreds of people trapped in the Russian-occupied Ukrainian town of Oleshky and its surroundings to be evacuated. There were emotional scenes when hundreds of Oleshky residents arrived in northern Ukraine on Saturday. Many were reunited with tearful relatives they had not seen in years. The evacuees told waiting journalists of years of hunger and hardship in a destroyed town.

But on Monday morning, local authorities confirmed that strikes had resumed, saying Moscow had hit a medical facility in Kherson city centre. They also said a 62-year-old woman and a 73-year-old man were injured when a Russian drone attacked the car they were travelling in.

Ukraine accused Russian forces of using the humanitarian ceasefire to strengthen their military positions, rotate units and deliver ammunition. Ukraine's General Staff said, 'The enemy used the humanitarian pause to set up their positions,' adding that they had recorded rotation of Russian units, expansion of anti-drone equipment on the roads, and delivery of ammunition.

The Kremlin appeared to corroborate this when spokesman Dmitry Peskov said it was 'reasonable to assume that the Ukrainian army also used this period for the necessary regrouping'. He added: 'It is a completely standard practice in such situations.'

The ceasefire had been brokered by US First Lady Melania Trump. Both Kyiv and Moscow thanked her repeatedly, though no details of her involvement were shared.

An unusual show of cooperation came from Russia's human rights ombudsman Yana Lantratova and her Ukrainian counterpart Dmytro Lubinets. The pair oversaw the ceasefire, travelled into Oleshky and were filmed speaking to residents together. They publicly thanked each other for their work, often highlighting that no violations of the ceasefire had been observed.

Both Lantratova and Lubinets called for the initiative to be repeated elsewhere, and Ukraine repeatedly said it would be prepared to observe similar ceasefires on a national level too. Lantratova said the hundreds of residents who decided to stay behind will receive monthly humanitarian aid deliveries, adding that decision too was the result of Melania Trump's mediation.

But the Kremlin swiftly dismissed the idea of a repeat even as the ceasefire was under way, calling Oleshky 'an isolated case' which would not affect the 'settlement process' — a euphemism for the stalled peace talks. 'There are no similar plans or initiatives,' Peskov reiterated on Monday.

Although last week the guns fell silent in Kherson region, elsewhere in Ukraine Russia's air strikes continued, killing scores of civilians and destroying crucial infrastructure. The decision to observe an unusually broad and comparatively lengthy ceasefire in and around Oleshky was therefore a notable exception.

As Kherson came under fire again, Ukrainian drones hit several energy facilities across four Russian regions. In Samara, residents reported hearing explosions and seeing black plumes of smoke rising into the sky, as an oil refinery was hit for the fifth time in a month.

Yet the troop rotations and resupply efforts show that neither side is expecting Oleshky to be a blueprint for lasting respite in the future. If the truce brought a rare moment of relief to Oleshky, it has done little to alter the wider trajectory of a war that grinds on for now.