Frontline Ukrainian hamlet enjoys blast-free night for first time since February

A Ukrainian serviceman speaks with a chaplain while a local resident rides a bicycle along a street, amid Russia’s attack on Ukraine, in a village near the newly recaptured city of Snihurivka, in Mykolaiv region, Ukraine November 10, 2022. REUTERS/Valentyn Ogirenko

For the first time since Moscow launched its full-scale invasion in February, the guns fell silent around Nadiia Nizarenko's devastated hamlet on the frontlines northeast of the Ukrainian city of Kherson.

"Last night was the first night it's been quiet," the diminutive 85-year-old said on Thursday in the hallway of the cramped apartment that she, her daughter and son-in-law refused to abandon as fighting raged daily around them.