KHERSON, Ukraine — In this city where Russian drones usually fill the skies, Olena Soboleva could not easily walk down the street to meet her best friend, Anna Herasimenko. Then came last week's truce, negotiated by First Lady Melania Trump and Pope Leo XIV, in a corner of southern Ukraine that included Kherson. This weekend, the two friends, both 21, took the opportunity to venture outside to autumnal skies clear of drones and guided bombs.
"No drones, no explosions," Soboleva says. "No one wants to kill you." They passed families strolling with their kids, shoppers stocking up on supplies and couples holding hands. They lined up at a cafe filled with paintings of cats.
"The city seems alive," says Herasimenko, "just like it used to be." Over the weekend, she had also ventured to a salon. "I did my nails," she says, showing off fresh burgundy polish. "The streets are full of people, just as they were in the past." The truce ended Sunday night.
Russia and Ukraine agreed to it in order to help Oleshky, a town across the Dnipro River from Kherson. Russian troops occupied Oleshky in 2022 and mined the land around it. Food and medicine rarely got through.
NPR spoke to the families of residents there, who said their loved ones survived on pickles and boiled weeds. Over the weekend, hundreds of Oleshky residents were evacuated, eventually escorted into northern Ukraine on buses. Dmytro Lubinets, Ukraine's ombudsman — the country's independent watchdog for human rights — thanked Melania Trump for ensuring that the ceasefire, which lasted from Oct. 27 to Nov. 1, happened.
"I believe they can be upheld and honored," Lubinets said about truces between Ukraine and Russia. Even a short pause in hostilities was a respite for Kherson. Russian troops occupied the city for several months in 2022, until local partisans spied for Ukrainian soldiers, who then forced the Russians out of the city.
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