Russia and Ukraine began a localised ceasefire around the Russian-occupied town of Oleshky at 01:00 GMT on Tuesday, both sides said, opening the humanitarian operation agreed last week for a town suffering acute shortages of food and medicine, Reuters reported. Russia's defence ministry said it had stopped shelling towards the Ukrainian-held city of Kherson, across the Dnipro River from Oleshky, and Ukraine's chief negotiator confirmed Kyiv was honouring the pause — even as a Russian missile attack on the capital late on Monday killed at least one person and injured 10, including students at a university dormitory, according to Ukrainian officials cited by Reuters.
How did both sides confirm the ceasefire had started?
With matching statements timed to the same hour. Russia's defence ministry said on Telegram it stopped shelling in the direction of Kherson from 4 a.m. Moscow time (01:00 GMT) to prepare for the humanitarian operation in Oleshky, Reuters reported. Dmytro Lubinets, Ukraine's parliament commissioner for human rights, confirmed in a Facebook post that the ceasefire had started at the same time. "As head of the Ukrainian negotiating team, I confirm that the Ukrainian side is honoring its commitments," he wrote. The start is the implementation of the agreement both sides announced on October 23 — brokered with the help of US first lady Melania Trump, the White House said last week — under which aid deliveries and evacuations were to begin once fire stopped. Whether convoys actually move and residents actually leave is the next test; no aid delivery or evacuation had been reported in the reporting opened for this article.
Why does Oleshky need a humanitarian operation?
Because its remaining residents have been cut off on a front line for years. Oleshky lies on the eastern bank of the Dnipro in Ukraine's southern Kherson region, opposite Kherson city, and Russian troops seized it during the first days of their February 2022 invasion and have controlled it ever since, Reuters reported. The ceasefire arrangement will enable aid deliveries and allow evacuations from a front-line town suffering acute shortages of food and medicine. As this site reported when the agreement was announced, the White House put the town's remaining population at roughly 1,700 to 2,000 people, down from about 24,000 before the war, and the operation is planned in stages — demining, food deliveries, then evacuations — carried out gradually.
What happened in Kyiv on Monday night?
A late-evening missile attack hit civilian sites across the capital's east bank, Ukrainian officials said. The attack killed at least one person and injured 10, including students at a dormitory, and hit an educational institution, residences, an underground station and medical facilities, Reuters reported. Mayor Vitali Klitschko, writing on Telegram, said one person had been killed near a supermarket, and Ukraine's state rescue services said a body was found by a heavily damaged apartment building. Klitschko put the injured at 10, many of them outside a student dormitory at the State Trade and Economics University on the east side of the Dnipro River; nine people were being treated in hospital, with three in serious condition. He said explosions shattered windows at two medical facilities and that two members of an emergency crew were injured after rushing to the scene of one strike. Reuters witnesses said a series of explosions jolted the city and power was cut in districts east of the Dnipro. The Kyiv figures in this article are Ukrainian officials' figures as reported by Reuters; no independent confirmation was available in the reporting opened for this article, and Reuters reported the same attacks also killed and injured people in Kharkiv and Pavlohrad, without giving figures for those cities. New explosions were heard on Tuesday morning in Kyiv, a Reuters witness said. Moscow has long denied that it targets civilians.
Why did Zelenskiy link the attack to air-defence deliveries?
Because the missiles Kyiv says it is waiting for are the ones used against such attacks. President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, writing on Telegram, gave no precise casualty figures — "For the moment, the number of people is not exactly known. But, unfortunately, there are casualties. There are injured. Rescue operations are continuing" — and repeated his call to eliminate delays in securing air-defence arms. Earlier in the day, Zelenskiy said Ukraine had been waiting for US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth to sign off on critical missile supplies: "In particular, we have been waiting for nearly a month for Mr Hegseth to sign off on missiles for Patriots and NASAMS. I instructed our team to raise this with the American side once again," the president said on X, Reuters reported.
This report is drawn from Reuters' October 27, 2026 report on the ceasefire's start, opened and read in full on reuters.com and via a verbatim carrier, and Reuters' October 26, 2026 report on the Kyiv attack, opened and read in full via a verbatim carrier. The ceasefire's start is confirmed by statements from both sides as reported by Reuters. The Kyiv casualty figures and damage account are Ukrainian officials' as reported by Reuters and are published attributed as such, with the absence of independent confirmation stated. Background on the October 23 agreement and the town's population is from this site's earlier reporting of that agreement.
