Ceasefire Brokered by Melania Starts at Ukrainian City

A localized, temporary ceasefire the first lady, Melania Trump, said she secured has started in the Ukrainian city of Oleshky, so that aid can be delivered and civilians who want to leave the besieged city can evacuate.The city, located just across the Dnipro River from Kherson, has been effectively blockaded by Russian troops since the early days of the invasion. Oleshky’ residents have faced severe shortages of food, water, and electricity. Additionally, approximately 90 percent of the city’s territory was flooded when the Kakkovka Dam was destroyed.Ms. Trump said she and her representative worked directly with both sides to define the terms of the pause in fighting. The ceasefire was initially set to begin on Thursday but it took effect at 4 a.m. Tuesday. “Timing was accelerated two days ahead of schedule to protect the safety of civilians and to facilitate the delivery of critical humanitarian aid,” Ms. Trump wrote in a Tuesday X post. “The ceasefire’s geographic area has expanded beyond Oleshky, within the Kherson Region, to provide safe passage for the humanitarian convoys,” Ms. Trump added. Roughly 24,000 people lived in Oleshky before the war, but the population is down to 2,000 or less. Many of the remaining residents are older people who have been unable to leave. There are also approximately 50 children in the city.Ukraine’s parliament commissioner for human rights, Dmytro Lubinets, in a Facebook post, confirmed the ceasefire was holding. “No ceasefire violations have been recorded by either side,” Mr. Lubinets said. “I hope that everything will continue in accordance with the agreed plan and that we will be able to help the civilians in Oleshky who are so eagerly awaiting assistance,” he continued.Mr. Lubinets says the Ukrainians were conducting the humanitarian mission jointly with the Russian Federation’s commissioner for human rights, Yana Lantratova, and with the coordination of Ms. Trump.Pope Leo XIV had expressed “deep concern” over the worsening situation in Oleshky in a phone call with Russian President Vladimir Putin. The pontiff repeatedly called for both sides to allow a humanitarian ceasefire to deliver food and medical assistance to the civilian population. The ceasefire is set to expire on November 1.In other developments, Finland’s president, Alexander Stubb, and Norway’s prime minister, Jonas Gahr Støre, spoke by phone Tuesday with Mr. Putin. The men said they initiated the call after meeting a week ago with Ukraine’s president, Vladimir Zelensky, and the Trump administration special envoy, Steve Witkoff. They discussed the war and planned peace talks in the United Arab Emirates. It was their first known direct conversation since shortly after the war began more than four years ago.“We held the conversation in our capacity as leaders of our respective countries, not as representatives of Europe,” Mr. Stubb said in an X post. “We emphasized that our support for Ukraine remains unwavering,” Mr. Stubb added.Also on Tuesday, an independent United Nations commission accused Russia of committing “crimes against humanity” by deliberately targeting civilian energy infrastructure in Ukraine.Millions of people in Ukraine faced lengthy outages of heating, electricity, water, and gas due to the attacks, the report presented to the General Assembly stated. “As the cold season approaches, the attacks have intensified once again, raising serious concerns about the threats to civilians’ lives and health,” the commission’s chairman, Erik Møse, said in a release.The United Nations Commission of Inquiry also accused Russian authorities of recruiting men trafficked from different countries into the Russian armed forces, in violation of international human rights law.

Ceasefire Brokered by Melania Starts at Ukrainian City

Ceasefire Brokered by Melania Starts at Ukrainian City

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