Kherson Enjoys Rare Quiet as Six-Day Truce Holds
A six-day ceasefire brokered by Melania Trump to get humanitarian aid into Russian-occupied Oleshky has given Kherson its first quiet days in years. The guns fell silent at 4am Moscow time on Tuesday, two days earlier than planned. Since then, said Ukraine’s human rights ombudsman Dmytro Lubinets, the city has “literally come back to life”.
The truce is local and short, and it is tied to food and medicine deliveries for Oleshky, on the Russian-held bank of the Dnipro. Residents have been walking streets still covered in anti-drone netting. “Ever since the ceasefire was announced, there’s been total silence,” one resident, Olga, told the BBC, though people fear what will follow once it lapses. The Kremlin still rejects a wider ceasefire, so the real test is whether a humanitarian pause can become a model for something broader. On past form, residents are right to be wary.