Kherson Residents Step Outside as Truce Clears Skies of Drones

Residents of Kherson, Ukraine, left their homes and walked the streets freely over the weekend after a truce cleared the skies above the southern city. The pause in fighting allowed Olena Soboleva, 21, to meet her best friend, Anna Herasimenko, at a cafe. "No drones, no explosions," Soboleva said. "No one wants to kill you."

The truce, negotiated by First Lady Melania Trump and Pope Leo XIV, covered part of southern Ukraine including Kherson and lasted from Oct. 27 to Nov. 1. It was arranged to help Oleshky, a town across the Dnipro River from Kherson that Russian troops occupied in 2022. Russian forces mined the land around Oleshky, and food and medicine rarely reached residents. Families said that loved ones survived on pickles and boiled weeds.

Over the weekend, hundreds of Oleshky residents were evacuated by bus into northern Ukraine. Dmytro Lubinets, Ukraine's human rights ombudsman, thanked Melania Trump for making the cease-fire possible. "I believe they can be upheld and honored," Lubinets said of truces between Russia and Ukraine.

Kherson has lived under constant threat since 2024, when Russian troops across the river began hunting residents with first-person-view drones carrying explosives. Heavy mesh nets cover the highway into the city, its streets and many buildings. During the truce, cars pulled up to the Greek-style monument at the city's gateway. Svitlana Vorobiova, a retired police officer, drove in from a safer city and posed for photos with her children. "He hasn't been here in four years," she said of her son. "He said, 'I cannot believe I'm in my hometown!'"

Volodymyr Mykolaienko, a former mayor of Kherson, used the pause to visit his father's grave in an area usually filled with drones. Russian troops arrested him in early 2022, and he spent years as a prisoner of Russia before a prisoner exchange freed him last year. "I was able to do exactly what I have long wanted to do," he said. "To talk to my father, pray, thank him for my life and to tell him what was happening to our city."

Oncology nurse Olena Yehorova called the truce a relief as she watched an accordion player at a busy bus stop. "The people in our city have been able to breathe," she said. The truce ended Sunday night, and Yehorova said she expects new attacks to resume at any time.