Hundreds of thousands without power as the Kherson ceasefire expires.

There is a particular quiet that settles over a region when a truce expires, a silence that is not peace but anticipation. On Sunday evening, the localized ceasefire in Ukraine's Kherson region ended, closing a rare humanitarian window that had allowed civilians to evacuate the Russian-occupied city of Oleshky. The truce, brokered with the help of U.S. First Lady Melania Trump and Pope Leo, had held since Tuesday, permitting an estimated 2,000 residents to leave a city that had been trapped between the Dnipro River, Russian forces, and mined routes out . It was the longest pause in hostilities since Russia's full-scale invasion nearly five years ago.

The evacuation itself was an ordeal of distances and checkpoints. Because Ukrainian military positions were only five kilometers from Oleshky, evacuees could not travel directly. Instead, they passed through Russian-occupied territory to southern Russia, flew to Belarus, and were finally driven across Ukraine's northern border . The oldest evacuee was ninety-four. The youngest was one. They brought pets—dogs, cats, a parrot, a raccoon—small companions in a journey that none had chosen . For families separated by years of occupation, the reunions at reception points were emotional scenes that the ceasefire made possible.

But the truce was limited to Kherson, and elsewhere the war continued without pause. Overnight on Saturday, Russian strikes hit energy infrastructure in four regions—Dnipropetrovsk, Vinnytsia, Zhytomyr, and Khmelnytskyi—leaving hundreds of thousands of homes without power . Substations, transformers, and power lines were targeted. Repair crews worked through Sunday, and most connections in Dnipropetrovsk were restored by early evening, but more than 60,000 customers remained without power . In Kyiv, emergency cuts left most of the capital without electricity for much of the day, and water supplies were disrupted.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said the intensity of Russian strikes had been "extremely high" over the past week, accusing Moscow of trying to exploit Ukraine's shortage of ballistic missile interceptors. "Russia is destroying infrastructure and killing our people right now, and it is betting on ballistic missiles this winter," he said, repeating his call for more Patriot systems and faster deliveries of air defense equipment . The strikes killed at least two people, including a thirteen-year-old girl, in the Vinnytsia region, according to the State Emergency Service .

Ukraine also struck back. Zelensky said Ukrainian forces hit a major missile fuel producer in Russia's Rostov region, causing a fire and damaging four production facilities . The exchange of blows continued even as the humanitarian window in Kherson closed, a reminder that the ceasefire was an exception, not a shift. Russia refused to extend the truce, according to a senior Ukrainian official, who told AFP that Ukraine had offered but "the Russians don't want to" .

On Sunday evening, Ukraine's air alert system was apparently hacked, with the air force warning of radiation over Kyiv—a reference to a possible nuclear attack. The message was quickly corrected: "The Air Alarm application has probably been subjected to hostile interference. There is no radiation threat!" . It was a small incident, but it captured the atmosphere of a country bracing for a winter of attacks, where even the warning systems cannot be trusted.

The ceasefire is over. The evacuations have ended. The power cuts continue. For the people of Kherson and the communities beyond it, the quiet of the past week has given way to the familiar sound of sirens and the uncertainty of another season of war.

Image Disclaimer: The visual accompanying this article was generated by artificial intelligence and is not a photograph of the actual strikes or evacuations.

Sources: BBC, DW, CP24, The Associated Press