Ukraine: More Than 60,000 Still Without Power as Kherson Truce Ends

A localised ceasefire in Ukraine's Kherson region expired Sunday night at 22:59 local time (21:00 GMT), hours after Russian strikes knocked out power to hundreds of thousands of homes across four Ukrainian regions, according to President Volodymyr Zelensky, the BBC reports.

The truce had held since it took effect last week even as fighting continued in other parts of the country, the BBC said. In the capital, Kyiv, Ukraine, electricity is now cut for most of the day because of repeated attacks on the power grid, and water supplies are disrupted as well, the broadcaster reported.

What happened when the Kherson ceasefire expired?

The pause in hostilities was confined to the Kherson region in southern Ukraine and was brokered with help from US First Lady Melania Trump and Pope Leo, according to the BBC. It began Tuesday and was later expanded from the single city of Oleshky to the wider Kherson region before lapsing Sunday night. Fighting elsewhere in the country did not stop during the truce, the BBC said.

How many people lost power in the strikes?

Zelensky said Russia struck energy infrastructure in four regions overnight Saturday, cutting power to hundreds of thousands of homes, the BBC reported. Some connections were restored Sunday, but the pace varied by region. In the Dnipropetrovsk region, most customers had power back by early evening, yet more than 60,000 remained without electricity, the regional governor said, according to the BBC. Emergency power cuts have been introduced nationwide because of the recurring attacks on the grid, the broadcaster said.

By the numbers

• Hundreds of thousands of homes lost power after overnight strikes on energy infrastructure in four regions, Zelensky said.
• More than 60,000 customers in the Dnipropetrovsk region remained without power by early evening Sunday, the regional governor said.

Who died in the Vinnytsia strike?

A separate overnight strike killed two people, including a 13-year-old girl, in the Vinnytsia region, Ukraine's State Emergency Service said, according to the BBC. The agency did not detail the target of that strike in the material reviewed.

What did Ukraine hit in Russia's Rostov region?

Zelensky said Ukrainian forces struck a major missile fuel producer in Russia's Rostov region, starting a fire and damaging four production facilities, the BBC reported. The strike was part of a broader exchange that has continued alongside the localized Kherson truce, according to the broadcaster.

What is Zelensky asking allies for?

Zelensky said in a social media post that the intensity of Russian strikes over the past week has been "extremely high," adding that Russia was "trying to take maximum advantage of the shortage of ballistic missile interceptors," the BBC reported. He said Ukraine communicates its need for Patriot missiles — which he described as the only effective weapon for downing Russia's ballistic missiles — to the United States, Europe and other partners "every day," according to the broadcaster. Zelensky thanked countries for support provided so far and for longer-term commitments but repeated his call for more immediate aid, the BBC said.

How did the Oleshky evacuation unfold?

The ceasefire's original purpose was to allow civilians to leave Oleshky, a city in the Kherson region that Russia has occupied since the first days of its full-scale invasion in February 2022, the BBC reported. Oleshky sits trapped between the Dnipro river on one side and Russian forces on the other, with evacuation routes mined and subject to drone attack, according to the broadcaster. Residents who remained in the city faced severe shortages of food, water and electricity, with some resorting to cooking garden weeds to survive, the BBC said.

Ukrainian military positions lie roughly 5 kilometers (3.1 miles) from Oleshky, but evacuees had to travel through Russian-occupied territory into southern Russia, fly to Belarus, and then be driven across Ukraine's northern border to complete their journey, the BBC reported. The broadcaster described emotional reunions on Saturday between residents and family members who had not seen each other in years.

With the localized truce now expired, it remains unclear from available reporting whether the Kherson ceasefire will be extended or whether evacuations from Oleshky will continue under separate arrangements.