Oleshky truce begins Oct. 29, delaying aid for trapped residents
The White House announced a temporary ceasefire for the flooded city, crediting Melania Trump and Pope Leo with brokering the agreement to help roughly 2,000 people.
By Harper Laurent ·
Residents of Oleshky will wait until Oct. 29 before humanitarian teams can enter the city. The White House confirmed the date for a temporary ceasefire on Friday, creating a six-day gap between the announcement and the start of aid operations. This delay leaves thousands of people without immediate access to food and medical supplies.
The agreement allows non-military personnel to cross into the Russian-occupied city. These teams will visit homes to distribute supplies and arrange transport for those wishing to leave. The White House stated that the population now stands between 1,700 and 2,000 people. This includes approximately 50 children. Before the war, the city was home to roughly 24,000 people.
Melania Trump is credited with securing the terms of the truce. A White House statement said she and her representative worked directly with leadership from both Russia and Ukraine. Trump described the situation as dire in the written release. She noted that the remaining residents are mostly elderly and require urgent care, medicine, and clean water.
David Arakhamia, Ukraine’s chief negotiator, confirmed the plan on Telegram. He stated that the humanitarian operation begins once the ceasefire takes effect. Arakhamia said the deal followed a lengthy process involving both Trump and Pope Leo. The agreement establishes a corridor for civilians to exit and for assistance to enter.
The Kremlin indicated that the evacuation process will take several days. Russian forces will stop firing from 4 a.m. local time on Oct. 27 to support the operation, according to Valery Gerasimov, the Chief of the General Staff. The Kremlin praised Trump’s role and noted that President Vladimir Putin spoke with Pope Leo by telephone last week. Putin told the Pope he was ready to cooperate on the issue.
Separate diplomatic talks are scheduled for early November. Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that technical-level meetings involving Ukraine, Russia, and the United States will take place in Abu Dhabi. Zelenskyy told the Hudson Institute that he spoke with U.S. envoys Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff after their recent meeting with Putin. He said any final peace deal would require strong security guarantees and ten years of funding for the Ukrainian army.
Fighting continued elsewhere on Friday. Moscow’s Sheremetyevo airport briefly suspended operations due to a Ukrainian drone threat. Mayor Sergei Sobyanin reported that air defences downed 21 drones over the capital in two hours. The two sides also exchanged 270 prisoners each. Anton Kovalskyi, Ukraine’s acting prosecutor general, said more than 19,000 Ukrainian civilians have died since the full-scale invasion began. This total includes 762 children.
