The Ukrainian city of Kherson has known its first two days of quiet after many years, as a US-brokered temporary ceasefire has allowed residents rare moments of respite from the constant Russian aerial attacks that plague the front line region.

Videos posted on social media showed people strolling down streets covered in anti-drone nets and gathering in the city’s squares – ordinary activities that usually mean keeping one eye on the sky and one ear out for incoming drones.

“Ever since the ceasefire was announced, there’s been total silence,” said Olga, 42, speaking by phone from Kherson. “We are all, of course, overjoyed.”

“I don’t even know what to call it,” she added, her smile coming through in her voice. “It’s as if everything has finally come to an end.”

Since Tuesday, Kherson has “literally come back to life,” Ukraine’s human rights ombudsman Dmytro Lubinets said.

“People are calmly going out, walking, enjoying the autumn sun. What for some is ordinary everyday life, for residents of the Kherson region today is the greatest desire.”

The temporary pause in hostilities – due to end on Sunday – is the result of efforts by US First Lady Melania Trump to broker a safe passage out of the Russian-occupied Ukrainian city of Oleshky, which lies on the other side of the Dnipro river from Kherson.

For several days, Russian forces have been working to clear the road of mines, ahead of a planned evacuation of Oleshky’s civilians on Friday.

But there are fears that, alongside carrying out the well-publicised “humanitarian operation” – which some American journalists will be invited to witness – the Russians are using the truce to bolster their forces in the area ahead of a renewed onslaught of Kherson from next week.

“They are… using this lull to strengthen their positions, bring in more military supplies, weapons, ammunition, and drones, and carry out some redeployment of their forces,” an anonymous source working in local government told the BBC.

Petro Andriushchenko, Director of Ukraine’s Center for Studying the Occupation, says Kherson locals have told him that they witnessed a military build-up around Radensk, some 20km (12 miles) from Oleshky.

Its residents will be saved but “we are simultaneously giving the enemy an opportunity to exploit the ceasefire for its own military purposes,” he said. Once the ceasefire ends, the situation may be “worse than we saw before, because Russia’s units will be stronger. They have enough time to prepare to prolong this action.”

Though Kherson residents are clear-eyed about what lies ahead, for a brief period this week the city caught its breath.

No violations have been reported on either side since Tuesday. There have been other ceasefires in the past, but these were generally not respected, Kherson resident Dima said.

“This is the first time the shelling has stopped, people don’t quite believe it,” he told the BBC. “They are going to the shops, drinking coffee, walking around… The city is alive.”

On social media, a woman named Yulia wrote about her unusually uneventful trip to the supermarket with an edge of disbelief. For once, she said, she returned home from the shops “whole and calm, not as usual – scared, sweating from the horror and with a lump in my throat.”

This week, dozens of people were also able to access their belongings and homes in the so-called “red zone” of Kherson – an area so exposed to drones and artillery attacks that it has become unlivable.

“Some are venturing into places where nobody has dared to go for years, filming areas where simply being present has meant – and will once again mean – almost certain death,” said Denisa Bohackova, a Czech volunteer who lives in Kherson.

Dima described scenes of “girls, boys, parents, grandmothers” walking down the streets of the red zone carrying suitcases and bags, returning to their flats to see what they could retrieve.

Some of those who returned to the red zone found buildings reduced to charred, empty shells; in other cases, homes had been looted. The scale of destruction in some of these places, Bohackova said, is “breathtaking”.

Others were rushing back for reasons beyond material concerns. Angela Dobrovolska’s husband Serhiy was killed two years ago by a grenade dropped by a piloted Russian drone – an instance of a “human safari” attack of the kind that Kherson has become sadly infamous for.

On Thursday, Angela headed back from Kyiv to Kherson to visit his grave for the first time in months. “They say that all the people have rushed to Kherson,” she said. “And I’ll be going to the cemetery to my husband.”

The population of Kherson has dwindled from over 250,000 to about 65,000 since the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, which will enter its sixth year in February.

Though civilian life in the city never stopped, Bohackova said, it also carried on under the conditions of an active battlefield, with schools, theatres, kindergartens and hospitals moved underground.

“An ordinary civilian from Kherson has experienced more of this war than many soldiers,” Bohackova said.

Olga, who is raising two children, described regular blackouts, mines dropped by drones and concealed by fallen leaves, drone fragments ricocheting, and a city that typically shuts by the afternoon.

But since silence fell on the city, Olga has been able to live a normal life. She drove to a different town and took the bus to another district to visit her grandmother with her son. Around her, the shops were full, as were the cafes. After years of quiet streets, “there was even a small traffic jam,” she smiled.

But the clock is ticking.

The evacuation of nearby Oleshky is due to be completed by Sunday, after which the ceasefire will be over. “The concern is that, starting Monday, things could turn truly chaotic,” Olga said.

“We know the strikes will resume, and that they will increase,” said Dima, as he and his wife prepared to visit their flat in the red zone for the first time in several months.

“These few days showed us how it could be if it all finally ended.”