Melania Trump brokers local ceasefire in Oleshky so trapped civilians can leave

The White House said on Friday that First Lady Melania Trump had secured a local ceasefire between Russia and Ukraine in Oleshky, a Russian-occupied town on the left bank of the Dnipro across from Kherson, so that aid can reach the few thousand civilians still there and those who want to leave can get out.

In a statement, Melania Trump said her representatives had worked with Russian and Ukrainian leadership to set the terms. “The situation in Oleshky is dire,” she said, calling it a front-line town “on the brink of disaster”.

“Both nations promptly assigned teams to coordinate the complex mechanics involved, including demining,” she said.

When the guns are meant to fall silent

Moscow confirmed its part. Gen Valery Gerasimov, chief of Russia’s general staff, said Russian forces “will cease fire on the Kherson axis” from 4 am Moscow time on Tuesday, 27 October, and would carry out “engineering reconnaissance” and ensure the “safe movement of the humanitarian convoy”. The White House account gives 29 October as the start, and the two sides are still working out the timing.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov thanked the first lady and said the effort had come up in the latest phone call between Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump. He said “those who want to leave it would be able to do so”, and that the evacuation would probably take several days.

In Kyiv, human rights ombudsman Dmytro Lubinets set out the order of events: “first a ceasefire will be put in place; second, humanitarian aid will be delivered to Oleshky.” He warned that the deal would be “extremely challenging to implement”.

A town cut off

Oleshky had about 24,000 residents before Russia seized it in February 2022. The White House puts the number left at 1,700 to 2,000, mostly elderly people, along with about 50 children. Residents are short of food and medicine, and each side accuses the other of blocking supplies.

Melania Trump said evacuees could go to a “preferred destination” in Russia or Ukraine. “I anticipate some will want to go to Russia and some to Ukraine,” she said. She added that an “impartial American media organisation” would travel with the Russian and Ukrainian teams, but did not name it.

The first lady has worked on Ukraine’s children before. The White House says six earlier reunifications have brought 34 children back to their families, and she raised the issue at her Fostering the Future Together event in New York during the 81st session of the UN General Assembly.

The wider talks

The Oleshky deal comes as the two sides prepare to return to US-mediated negotiations. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has confirmed his negotiators will attend talks in Abu Dhabi in the first half of November after speaking to US envoys Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff. He has said any settlement needs strong security guarantees and 10 years of funding for Ukraine’s army.