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The longest truce in the war in Ukraine, negotiated by the U.S. first lady, Melania Trump, and limited to the Kherson region, expires this Sunday with no signs of an extension.
According to a high-ranking official in the Ukrainian presidency, the country's foreign ministry presented "a proposal to extend" the ceasefire. But "the Russians do not want to," this source told AFP.
The unusual pause in more than four and a half years of fighting, which began early Tuesday, allowed for a humanitarian mission to the city of Oleshki, occupied by Russia since 2022.
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None of the warring parties reported violations of the ceasefire since it went into effect, in what a Ukrainian parliamentarian described as the "greatest de-escalation since 2022."
For the inhabitants of Kherson, who live under the crossfire of both sides, the cessation of hostilities was a breath of fresh air.
"We have to take advantage of this time to do things," said Volodimir Omeltchenko, a 38-year-old gardener, who is pruning rose bushes ahead of winter.
The conflict, triggered in 2022 by the Russian invasion, has devastated areas of eastern and southern Ukraine, has left hundreds of thousands dead, and has forced millions of people to abandon their homes.
Some of these displaced people took advantage of the truce to return to their homes in Kherson. In Yulia Mayfeld's case, she had not done so since she fled with her children toward the nearby Odesa region five years ago.
"It has been so long, so long," she says with tears in her eyes and a huge smile. "I came just so the children could feel what a home is again, that intimate feeling of home, the place where they were born," she states.
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Her nine-year-old twin daughters, Sofia and Victoria, "do not really remember what it was like," she explains. Her son, Pavlo, however, remembers his last birthday there with his childhood friends.
"I miss this city so much," says the 11-year-old boy, who ran up the stairs to his room, still full of toys.
The family planned to return to Odesa on Sunday and "close the chapter on Kherson," the mother says.
A Ukrainian military officer, who spoke on condition of anonymity, expressed concern that the fighting could be "worse than before" when the truce ends.
According to this military officer, Russian forces, deployed on the other side of the Dnieper River, took advantage of the last few days to concentrate new personnel, move ammunition reserves, and gather information on Ukrainian positions using drones.
- Attacks -
Outside of Kherson, the fighting has continued.
Russia claimed on Sunday that a drone struck an "industrial enterprise" east of Moscow overnight.
Ukrainian media reported an attack on the Kstovo oil refinery, described as "one of Russia's largest refineries, producing fuels and lubricants."
Ukraine has repeatedly attacked Russian oil and gas facilities, claiming they are a legitimate response to the bombing of its energy infrastructure.
U.S. President Donald Trump, is pressuring Kyiv to stop these attacks, believing they contribute to rising diesel prices. Analysts attribute this price increase to the war with Iran.
The Ukrainian Ministry of Energy reported new power supply outages across the country on Sunday, including in Kyiv, due to Russian attacks.
And authorities installed by Moscow in occupied Ukrainian territories claimed that five people were killed by Kyiv's attacks since Saturday night.
Both sides claim their attacks do not target civilians.
Russia currently controls about a fifth of its neighbor's territory: the Crimean peninsula, annexed in 2014; most of the eastern regions of Donetsk and Luhansk, known collectively as the Donbas; and large parts of the southern regions of Zaporizhzhia and Kherson.
Diplomatic efforts pushed by Washington to end the Russian invasion remain stalled for now. However, a tripartite meeting between the United States, Russia, and Ukraine is scheduled for November.
[Publicidad]