Peace has arrived in southern Ukraine with a service area. Before anyone orders the commemorative stationery, check whether your city is included.

According to the Associated Press, Russia and Ukraine began observing a localized ceasefire around the occupied city of Oleshky early Tuesday, ahead of a planned humanitarian mission. Both countries confirmed the start. Russian missile attacks continued elsewhere.

Those facts belong in the same paragraph. Separating them is how a limited humanitarian opening acquires a tuxedo and starts accepting awards for ending a war.

The opening matters. Up to 2,000 people remain stranded in Oleshky, where food and medical supplies are running dangerously low and mines and drones restrict movement. Melania Trump’s office says she led negotiations with civilian representatives from both countries. Pope Leo XIV also pressed for aid and safe evacuation. Give the work its credit. People getting medicine is not a partisan defeat.

But the mission was still ahead, not completed, when AP reported. The truce is meant to last through Saturday, or longer if necessary, and its precise geographical scope remained unclear. A promise to open a corridor is not yet a person safely through it.

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Imagine selling this as a national peace plan at a customer-service desk. “Does it cover Kyiv?” Please consult the exclusions. “Has the aid arrived?” Your request is being processed. The brochure would need a second brochure.

That is the problem with judging diplomacy by the size of the announcement rather than the size of the protection. Russia can cooperate on a narrow pause while continuing attacks outside it. The narrow cooperation can save lives; it does not turn the other attacks into an administrative oversight.

There is a better measure than the podium. AP spoke with Kherson city administrator Yaroslav Shanko, whose usually busy drone detector had gone quiet. He remained wary. City services hoped to use the lull for utility repairs normally made too dangerous by drones.

That is what this should be for: supplies delivered, civilians able to leave, workers fixing the things that keep a city alive. Not a victory lap around a map with most of the country left outside the circle.

Let the people doing the repairs have the quiet. The congratulations can wait.