Officials say that a six-day ceasefire in the Russian-occupied city of Oleshky in southern Ukraine has held for its first day and night KHERSON, Ukraine -- A planned six-day ceasefire in and around a Russia-occupied city in southern Ukraine held for its first day and night, officials said Wednesday, but Moscow and Kyiv battered each other elsewhere as they awaited a date for the next round of U.S.-brokered talks. The localized truce in the devastated southern city of Oleshky began Tuesday and is due to last through Sunday as a humanitarian operation races to get urgently needed food and medicine to about 2,000 remaining residents, as well as evacuate those who want to leave. If the ceasefire holds, it will be the first time since Russia’s full-scale invasion of its neighbor more than 4½ years ago that the two sides have observed a significant truce.
Previous attempts to stop the fighting have either failed to take hold or quickly unraveled amid deep mistrust. A representative from the United States will join civilian officials from Russia and Ukraine when they go into Oleshky, Ukraine’s lead negotiator for the aid mission said. Evacuated residents will be free to choose between Ukraine and Russia as their destination, he said in an interview with Ukraine’s private 1+1 television.
Authorities will try to ensure that aid will keep flowing into Oleshky for anyone who wants to remain, he said. Negotiators involved in the aid mission said doctors, medicines, food supplies and water would be sent to Oleshky before any evacuation corridors are opened. Russia’s occupying forces impose strict limits on who can enter Oleshky, and there was no news on how the humanitarian operation was unfolding.
Lubinets and his Russian counterpart, Yana Lantratova, both said Wednesday there had been no ceasefire violations in Oleshky for 30 hours. The plight of the city in Ukraine's southern Kherson region caught the attention of U.S. first lady Melania Trump, and the White House said that she brokered the humanitarian mission. Pope Leo XIV also spoke this month with Presidents Volodymyr Zelenskyy of Ukraine and Vladimir Putin of Russia, urging them to allow humanitarian aid into Oleshky and the safe evacuation of civilians, the Vatican said.
Both Ukrainian and Russian officials, eager to win U.S. President Donald Trump’s approval as he pushes for an elusive peace settlement, thanked Melania Trump for her role. The ceasefire coincided with U.S.-led plans to bring Moscow and Kyiv officials back to the table next month for technical talks on how to move forward on ending the war, even though neither side shows signs of backing down from their key demands.
Talks between delegations from Ukraine, Russia and the United States that are expected to take place in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, in November haven't been scheduled yet, because Washington is awaiting developments in the Middle East, Zelenskyy told reporters in remarks released Wednesday. Zelenskyy said during a visit to The Hague, Netherlands, on Wednesday that he hopes a date can be scheduled for the talks, possibly between Nov. 6-10, after the Nov. 3 midterm election. Putin’s foreign affairs adviser, Yuri Ushakov, meanwhile, said that European representatives won’t be invited to the meeting.
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