Kherson attacks resume after local Oleshky ceasefire ends

Ukrainian authorities reported renewed attacks on Kherson on 2 November, a day after a six-day ceasefire around the Russian-occupied town of Oleshky expired.

The BBC reported that local officials said a medical facility in Kherson city centre had been hit. In a separate attack, they said a Russian drone struck a car, injuring a 62-year-old woman and a 73-year-old man. Kherson lies across the Dnipro River from Oleshky.

The local agreement was intended to allow aid into Oleshky and help residents leave. The White House said US first lady Melania Trump helped broker it. Ukraine’s human rights ombudsman, Dmytro Lubinets, said the pause began on 27 October; Reuters reported that it ended at 21:00 GMT on 1 November.

Some evacuees reached Ukrainian-controlled territory via Russia and Belarus on 31 October, when relatives waited to greet them. Trump said nearly 800 people had been evacuated from Oleshky. Lubinets declined to give numbers for those who went to Ukrainian-held territory or Russia, or those who stayed.

The ceasefire was local, not a halt to the wider war. Air strikes continued elsewhere during the pause. On 2 November, Russian attacks on an aid distribution site and shelter in the Zaporizhzhia region killed 31 people, the Associated Press reported the following day. President Volodymyr Zelensky said on 3 November that Ukraine had offered to extend the Oleshky ceasefire.

Ukraine’s general staff accused Russian forces of using the pause to rotate units, strengthen positions and bring in ammunition. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said he had no specific information about movements, but called the adjustment of positions standard practice and suggested Ukrainian forces might also have regrouped.

Lubinets said the agreement barred the deployment or movement of military equipment. He also said both sides had appointed monitors and reported no violations at the end of the pause. The alleged Russian movements and their locations have not been independently established, and it is unclear whether they would have breached the agreement.