Oleshky Truce Begins Oct. 29 After Six-Day Gap
The White House confirmed a temporary ceasefire will start Oct. 29 to allow aid and evacuation for 1,700 to 2,000 residents, following a deal brokered by Melania Trump and Pope Leo.
By Kwame Silva ·
A temporary ceasefire in the Russian-occupied city of Oleshky is set to begin on Oct. 29, according to a White House announcement on Friday. The truce allows humanitarian teams to deliver food, medicine, and water to a population that has dropped to between 1,700 and 2,000 people, including roughly 50 children. The White House credited Melania Trump with securing the agreement, stating she and her representative worked directly with Russian and Ukrainian leadership to finalize the terms.
The situation in Oleshky has deteriorated rapidly. Approximately 90 percent of the city is flooded following the destruction of the Kakhovka Dam. Melania Trump described the front-line city as being on the brink of disaster, noting that the remaining residents are mostly elderly and in urgent need of medical attention. Before the war, the population of Oleshky was approximately 24,000. The city sits across the Dnipro River from Kherson.
The deal involves a pause in all military action to facilitate a civilian evacuation along a designated safe passage. Non-military teams from both nations will visit residents in their homes to arrange transport for those wishing to leave for either Russia or Ukraine. Ukrainian negotiator David Arakhamia confirmed on Telegram that the humanitarian operation would commence once the ceasefire took hold. He stated the accord followed a long process involving both Trump and Pope Leo, creating a corridor for people to exit and assistance to enter.
The Kremlin indicated that the evacuation would require at least a few days to complete. Russian Chief of the General Staff Valery Gerasimov announced that Russian forces would stop firing from 4 a.m. local time on Oct. 27 to support the operation. This creates a two-day window before the formal start of the truce on Oct. 29. The Kremlin praised Trump and noted that work was already under way to ease conditions in the city after President Vladimir Putin spoke by telephone with Pope Leo last week.
The announcement comes amid a week of active military exchanges. 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 a two-hour period. The two sides also exchanged 270 prisoners each. Ukrainian acting prosecutor general Anton Kovalskyi stated that more than 19,000 Ukrainian civilians, including 762 children, have been killed since the full-scale invasion began.
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy announced that technical-level talks involving Ukraine, Russia, and the United States are scheduled for Abu Dhabi in the first half of November. Zelenskyy told the Hudson Institute that he spoke with U.S. envoys Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff after their meeting with Putin earlier in the week. He emphasized that any final peace deal would require strong security guarantees and 10 years of funding for Ukraine's army.
The new ceasefire follows two weeks of criticism from European allies and members of both U.S. political parties regarding the administration's involvement in the war. President Donald Trump recently struck a deal with Putin to import diesel and announced a ceasefire on energy attacks, though Russia continued its fire. On Oct. 14, Zelenskyy noted that SpaceX had restricted Starlink service, a move Ukrainian officials say hampers strikes and drone defence.
