White House pins Oleshky truce start on Oct. 29
A localized ceasefire is set to begin in six days, allowing aid to reach a flooded district with fewer than 2,000 residents.
By Ayanda Boateng ·
The White House announced on Friday that Russia and Ukraine have agreed to a temporary ceasefire in the Russian-occupied city of Oleshky. The truce is scheduled to begin on Oct. 29. Officials stated the pause in military action is intended to allow humanitarian aid to reach residents and facilitate a civilian evacuation.
The administration credited First Lady Melania Trump with securing the arrangement. A White House statement said she and her representative worked directly with Russian and Ukrainian leadership to establish the terms of the localized halt. Trump described the situation in the front-line city as dire in the release. She noted that the remaining population consists largely of elderly residents who require medical attention, medicine, food, and clean water.
Oleshky sits across the Dnipro River from Kherson. The White House reported that the city currently holds between 1,700 and 2,000 residents, including about 50 children. This represents a sharp drop from the pre-war population of roughly 24,000. Approximately 90 per cent of the city is flooded following the destruction of the Kakhovka Dam.
Under the agreed terms, non-military teams from both nations will visit residents in their homes. These teams will help arrange transport for civilians wishing to leave for either Russia or Ukraine along a designated safe passage. Ukraine’s top negotiator, David Arakhamia, confirmed the humanitarian operation will commence once the ceasefire holds. He stated the accord followed a long process involving both Trump and Pope Leo.
The Kremlin said the evacuation would take at least a few days. Russian Chief of the General Staff Valery Gerasimov stated that Russian forces will stop firing from 4 a.m. local time on Oct. 27 to support the operation. The Kremlin praised Trump and noted that work was underway to ease conditions after President Vladimir Putin told Pope Leo he was ready to co-operate. The two leaders reportedly spoke by telephone last week.
Separate diplomatic tracks are also advancing. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said negotiators from Ukraine, Russia, and the United States agreed to hold technical-level talks in Abu Dhabi in the first half of November. Zelenskyy told the Hudson Institute that he had spoken with U.S. envoys Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff after their meeting with Putin earlier in the week. He said any peace deal would need strong security guarantees and 10 years of funding for Ukraine’s army.
Fighting continued on Friday. Moscow’s Sheremetyevo airport briefly suspended operations due to a Ukrainian drone threat. Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said air defences downed 21 drones headed for the capital over two hours. The two sides also exchanged 270 prisoners each. Ukraine’s acting prosecutor general, Anton Kovalskyi, said more than 19,000 Ukrainian civilians, including 762 children, have been killed since the full-scale invasion began.
