Kherson truce lets displaced families return home

A week-long humanitarian truce in Ukraine's Kherson region has allowed displaced families to briefly return to homes they fled during fighting, including Yuliia Mayfeld and her children, who had not been back for almost five years.

The truce, brokered by US First Lady Melania Trump, was scheduled to end on Sunday evening. Mayfeld, 39, and her children came back from the nearby Odesa region to see their home, collect memories and show the younger children where they were born.

Russian forces entered the Kherson region after invading Ukraine in February 2022 and captured the regional capital. Ukraine retook the city in November that year, but Russian forces have continued to fire drones and rockets from across the Dnipro river.

About three-quarters of Kherson's 280,000 inhabitants have fled. Displaced residents used the truce to collect belongings, check whether their homes had survived strikes and walk through the city.

A local Ukrainian officer, speaking anonymously to AFP, claimed Russian forces had used the calm to bring in more troops, move ammunition and gather intelligence with surveillance drones. Residents said they feared conditions would worsen after the truce ended.