Kyiv (Ukraine) (AFP) – The longest truce of the Ukraine war, brokered by US First Lady Melania Trump and limited to just the Kherson region, was set to end on Sunday evening after neither side announced an extension. The rare pause in fighting, which began early Tuesday, enabled a humanitarian mission to the Russian-occupied city of Oleshky and came as the Ukraine war grinds through its fifth year. Neither side reported violations after the truce began, in what one Ukrainian lawmaker described as the “biggest de-escalation since 2022.”
The conflict, sparked by Russia’s 2022 full-scale invasion, has destroyed parts of eastern and southern Ukraine, left hundreds of thousands of soldiers and civilians dead, and forced millions to flee their homes. AFP spoke to several Kherson residents, one of whom said the ceasefire had been a “breath of fresh air.” “We have to use this time to get things done,” said Volodymyr Omeltchenko, a 38-year-old gardener. “We’re pruning the rose bushes for winter.” The ceasefire was due to end later Sunday.
A Ukrainian military officer, speaking on the condition of anonymity, expressed concerns that the fighting would be “worse than before” when it resumed. Russian forces, positioned on the other side of the Dnipro river, have taken advantage of the calm of the past few days to amass new troops, transport ammunition stocks, and collect intelligence on Ukrainian positions using surveillance drones, the officer said.
Fighting continued elsewhere in Ukraine. Russia said Sunday that a drone had struck an “industrial enterprise” east of Moscow overnight. Ukrainian media reported that Kyiv had attacked the Kstovo oil refinery, calling it “one of Russia’s largest oil refineries, producing fuel and lubricants.” Kyiv has repeatedly struck Russian oil and gas sites, in what it says is fair retaliation for Russian attacks on Ukrainian energy infrastructure.
US President Donald Trump had been pressing Kyiv to stop such attacks, blaming them for rising diesel costs that analysts attribute to the Iran war. Ukraine’s energy ministry reported fresh power outages across the country on Sunday, including in Kyiv, following Russian strikes on Ukrainian energy infrastructure.
In the Russian-occupied Lugansk region of Ukraine, Ukrainian strikes had killed four people since Saturday evening, Russian-installed authorities said. Russia, which denies targeting civilians, now occupies around a fifth of its neighbour: the Crimean peninsula, which it annexed in 2014, most of the eastern regions of Donetsk and Lugansk — collectively referred to as the Donbas — and large parts of the southern Zaporizhzhia and Kherson regions.
US-mediated talks between Russia and Ukraine are set to resume this month, having been effectively frozen since the United States and Israel launched joint strikes on Iran in February.
© 2024 AFP
