Ukraine: Oleshky ceasefire ends, Russian attacks continue

Russian drones were flying over Kyiv on SundayImage: Vladyslav Musiienko/AFPAdvertisementSkip next section What you need to knowWhat you need to know A temporary truce in Oleshky in southern Ukraine ended at 11 p.m. local time (10 p.m. CET)

The Ukrainian Air Force said on Sunday evening that its public air raid alert app had been hacked.

For ​a short ​time, the app ‌showed the capital, Kyiv, and other areas subject to ‌a nuclear alert, but ​the abnormality later disappeared.

"The air alert ​app appears to have been ⁠subjected ​to enemy influence," ​the air force ​said on ‌Telegram.

"There is no radiation threat! " it confirmed, adding: "Stay ⁠calm and follow ⁠our ​updates on our channel!"

Local residents in the southern Ukrainian region of Kherson said the six-day ceasefire in and around the Russian-occupied town of Oleshky had been a "breath of fresh air."

"We have to use this time to get things done," Volodymyr Omeltchenko, a 38-year-old gardener, told the AFP news agency. "We're pruning the rose bushes for winter."

Pope Leo XIV, who had pressed Russia to agree to the truce, said he hoped the temporary pause would "strengthen the desire for dialogue and lead to new concrete peace initiatives."

However, a Ukrainian military officer, speaking on condition of anonymity, expressed concern, telling AFP that the fighting would be "worse than before" when it resumed.

He said Russian forces had taken advantage of the calm of the past week to amass new troops and ammunition stocks, and collect intelligence on Ukrainian positions.

The longest truce in Russia's invasion of Ukraine, which was limited to the southern Kherson region in and around the Russian-occupied town of Oleshky, ended on Sunday after Russia refused the offer of an extension, Ukrainian officials said.

"The ceasefire, which was in effect from October 27 to November 1, has ended," confirmed Ukraine's Parliament Commissioner for Human Rights, Dmytro Lubinets, who called the temporary truce "an important step in our joint humanitarian efforts" with Russia.

Neither side reported violations of the truce which was one Ukrainian lawmaker described to the AFP news agency as the "biggest de-escalation since 2022."

The Ukrainian military evacuated a further 167 civilians from the partially occupied southern region of Kherson on Sunday, the army's general staff confirmed shortly before a localized six-day ceasefire was due to expire.

Among the evacuees were 22 children and 21 people with limited mobility, according to the announcement.

The temporary truce in and around the Russian-occupied town of Oleshky is set to expire at 11 p.m. local time (10 p.m. CET).

Local governor Olexander Prokudin called on residents in the region to remain alert and warned people not to enter or approach areas close to the Dnipro river which flows through Kherson.

Ukrainian officials said the intensity of Russian drone and artillery strikes remained high in those areas.

Ukraine offered to extend the US-brokered ceasefire for the Kherson region but Russia refused, a senior Ukrainian official told the AFP news agency.

The truce, which only applied to the southeastern region of Kherson, expires at 10:59 p.m. local time (2059 GMT) on Sunday evening.

The official told AFP that the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry had made the offer but "the Russians don't want to."

The ceasefire, which the White House says was brokered by First Lady Melania Trump, began on Tuesday and has allowed for a humanitarian mission to the Russian-occupied city of Oleshky.

Around 2,000 civilians were in Oleshky when the ceasefire took effect this week. They were given the choice of leaving the area to territory controlled by Ukraine or Russia, or of staying in the city, which has been resupplied during the truce.

US President Donald Trump called for the ceasefire to become the "starting point for lasting peace."

"The ceasefire across Oleshky and the surrounding Kherson region has provided residents with the freedom to move, access to food, clean water, medicine, plus a renewed sense of dignity without the constant threat of attack," Trump said on social media. "Let Oleshky become the starting point for lasting peace."

A Russian drone attack on Koziatyn in central Ukraine has killed at least three people and injured four others, including three children, local authorities said Sunday.

Vinnytsia regional military administrator Nataliya Zabolotna said on Facebook that a 13-year-old girl was among those who died. 

"Two five-year-old children and a 16-year-old boy" sustained injuries, she said, as well as a 24-year-old man.

The victims were injured when a drone exploded between a residential building and a school, officials said.

Russian drone strikes were also reported in the western region of Chernivtsi. One person was injured and an administrative building was severely damaged, regional military administrator Ruslan Osypenko said.

Foreign ministers from countries making up the G20 refused to take part in the traditional group photo with Russia's Sergey Lavrov.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio canceled the event because of the boycott, as Russia's war in Ukraine and Moscow's diplomatic isolation from many Western countries overshadowed the summit.

Residents evacuated from Russian-occupied Oleshky have arrived in Ukrainian-held territory after a rare localized ceasefire enabled civilians to leave.

Speaking to DW, evacuees described years of isolation, food shortages, and regular shelling, with some saying they survived by eating grass and dogs as supplies ran out.

The rescue operation brought families back together at a reception point in northern Ukraine, where relatives, volunteers, and local residents welcomed the arrivals after their journey through Russia and Belarus.

Volodymyr Zelenskyy met with his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan in Istanbul on Saturday evening for talks that the Ukrainian president said included preparations for a three-way summit between Ukraine, Russia and the United States.

He said the meeting would be held in the first half of November.

"President Erdogan and I discussed the prospects for this format and other possibilities, including ways to involve Turkey and all of Europe, as well as the possibility of holding meetings here in Turkey," Zelenskyy said.

"At every level, Russia must be sent signals that there is no alternative to peace and that support for Ukraine will not diminish."

Previous rounds of talks between Ukraine and Russia brokered by Turkey failed to yield a lasting peace agreement.

Describing the meetings as "important and substantive," Zelenskyy said he and Erdogan had also discussed security issues concerning shipping through the Black Sea.

"This includes food security, and today President Erdogan and I agreed to work on a Black Sea grain corridor to ensure that the corridor exists and operates effectively," the Ukrainian leader told a press conference.

A ceasefire limited to the Kherson region in eastern Ukraine that was brokered by US First Lady Melania Trump was set to expire on Sunday evening, after neither Russia nor Ukraine announced an extension.

The rare truce, which began on Tuesday, is the longest since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

The ceasefire allowed for a humanitarian mission to the Russian-occupied city of Oleshky.

While neither side reported violations of the ceasefire, Russian strikes continued overnight, with fresh power outages reported across Ukraine on Sunday, its energy ministry and president Volodymyr Zelenskyy said.

Ukrainian strikes on the Russian-occupied region of Luhansk killed at least four people since Sunday evening, Russian-backed local authorities said.

Hundreds of thousands of households lost electricity after overnight Russian strikes hit energy infrastructure in four Ukrainian regions, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said.

In a post on X, the Ukrainian president said energy infrastructure in four regions — Dnipro, Vinnytsia, Zhytomyr, and Khmelnytskyi — had been struck.

"Substations, transformers, and power lines that supply electricity to our people's homes were targeted. Repair crews are working everywhere. As of now, hundreds of thousands of families remain without power," Zelenskyy said Sunday.

He added that "massive Russian attacks on Ukraine's other critical infrastructure are also continuing unabated."

"The intensity of the strikes is very high," he said, accusing Russia of seeking to exploit Ukraine's shortage of interceptors used to shoot down ballistic missiles.

Zelenskyy repeated his call to the US, Europe and Ukraine's other partners to do more to deliver missiles and other weaponry to better defend against the Russian attacks.

"These deliveries cannot take years. Russia is destroying infrastructure and killing our people right now, and it is betting on ballistic missiles this winter. Accordingly, decisions on air defense must also be implemented now," the Ukrainian president said.

Russia wants the opening rounds of renewed peace negotiations to involve only Moscow, Kyiv and Washington, Kremlin aide Yuri Ushakov said.

Asked whether European countries should participate, Ushakov pointed to Russia's existing contacts with the United States.

"We have working contacts with the Americans," Interfax quoted him as saying. It was therefore "logical" for at least the first rounds to take place in a trilateral format, he added.

A drone attack caused "significant damage" to an industrial facility east of Moscow, a Russian governor said, following Ukrainian reports of a strike on a major oil refinery.

Nizhny Novgorod Governor Gleb Nikitin reported a "massive drone attack" overnight, saying more than 100 drones were destroyed. Preliminary information indicated no casualties, he added.

Nikitin did not identify the damaged facility. Ukrainian media reported that the target was the Kstovo oil refinery, describing it as one of Russia's largest.

The reports could not be independently verified.

Authorities said they were taking steps to keep fuel available at gas stations.

Russia said Ukraine had resumed attacks on its refineries after a pause. US President Donald Trump had pressured Kyiv to stop such strikes, blaming them for rising diesel prices.

Ukraine has repeatedly targeted Russian oil and gas facilities in response to Russian attacks on its energy infrastructure.

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