Reported by NPR World
The roots of Russia's invasion of Ukraine go back decades and run deep. The current conflict is more than one country fighting to take over another; it is — in the words of one U.S. official — a shift in "the world order." Here are some helpful stories to make sense of it all.
People walk past the destroyed location of a cafe in Kherson, Ukraine. Svet Jacqueline for NPR hide caption
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.
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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.
Best friends Anna Herasimenko and Olena Soboleva, both 21, spent the ceasefire taking walks in the city and having coffee at a favorite cafe. They rarely see each other in person because constant drone attacks make it too dangerous to venture outside. Svet Jacqueline for NPR hide caption
"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."
"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…