Melania Trump-Backed Local Truce Begins in Ukrainian Town

Russia and Ukraine halted fighting around Oleshky, a war-ravaged town in the Russian-controlled part of southern Ukraine, under a rare local ceasefire brokered with the involvement of US First Lady Melania Trump.

Russia and Ukraine halted fighting around Oleshky, a war-ravaged town in the Russian-controlled part of southern Ukraine, under a rare local ceasefire brokered with the involvement of US First Lady Melania Trump.

The temporary truce is intended to allow deliveries of supplies and prepare the evacuation of civilians who remain trapped in Oleshky after prolonged fighting around the front-line town on the southern bank of the Dnipro River.

Both sides were sticking to their commitments as part of the local ceasefire which started 3 a.m. Kyiv time on Tuesday, according to Dmytro Lubinets, the Ukrainian parliament’s human rights commissioner, and Russian Human Rights Commissioner Yana Lantratova, who posted separately on Telegram. Kyrylo Budanov, the head of Ukraine’s presidential office, also confirmed the truce in a Telegram post.

The White House announced the humanitarian arrangement around Oleshky last week in a statement, crediting Melania Trump with brokering the agreement and citing her as saying the town was “on the brink of disaster.” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov also welcomed the effort, saying the First Lady “made a significant contribution to coordinating the humanitarian operation,” Tass reported, without going into details.

The evacuation could take several days, according to the state-run news service.

Even as fighting subsided near Oleshky, hostilities continued elsewhere along the front line. Russia launched a ballistic missile barrage against Kyiv overnight, hitting a university and disrupting road and subway traffic across the Dnipro via the key Pivdennyi Bridge.

The city of Oleshky has been at the center of a humanitarian crisis, with food and medicine in short supply and residents lacking running water and electricity, according to reports. The city was captured by Russian forces early in their invasion of Ukraine in 2022 and the situation there has worsened. 

Its predicament first came to Melania Trump’s attention at an event she hosted during the UN General Assembly in September, according to the White House, which cited her as saying that she used channels of communications developed during her work on war-affected children to take up the cause of Oleshky.

An “impartial American media organization” will accompany Russian and Ukrainian officials during the process, it said, without providing further details.

Earlier this month, Pope Leo XIV spoke by telephone with Russian President Vladimir Putin, where the pontiff expressed “deep concern about the grave humanitarian situation in the city of Oleshky.” 

The pope also spoke separately with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to express hopes for cooperation between Ukraine and Russia to allow for deliveries of food and medicine and for the safe and voluntary evacuation of civilians.

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