Russian strikes cut power to thousands in Ukraine as Kherson ceasefire to end within hours
A rare humanitarian ceasefire in Ukraine's Kherson region expires on Sunday at 22:59 local time (21:00 GMT), concluding a pause that allowed civilians to evacuate the Russian-occupied city of Oleshky. Brokered with the assistance of US First Lady Melania Trump and Pope Leo, the truce brought relief to residents trapped since February 2022 amid severe shortages of food, water, and power. According to human rights ombudsman Dmytro Lubinets, evacuees aged one to 94 years old had to travel through southern Russia and Belarus before finally crossing back into Ukraine.
Elsewhere, Russian strikes on energy infrastructure intensified. Overnight bombardments across four regions triggered nationwide emergency blackouts, cutting electricity for most of the day in Kyiv and leaving more than 60,000 customers without power in Dnipropetrovsk by Sunday evening. In Vinnytsia, a strike killed two people, including a 13-year-old girl. Warning that Moscow is exploiting an acute shortage of interceptors, President Volodymyr Zelensky renewed urgent appeals to the US and Europe for Patriot missiles.
Meanwhile, Ukraine struck a major missile fuel plant in Russia's Rostov region, sparking a fire and damaging four production facilities.
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