The war in Ukraine has no general ceasefire, but one small riverside town may soon get a pause. The White House announced on Friday that Russia and Ukraine had agreed to halt military action in Oleshky from October 29, crediting First Lady Melania Trump with arranging the deal. Neither Moscow nor Kyiv had confirmed it by the afternoon, and Washington gave no end date.
Oleshky sits on the left bank of the Dnipro, facing the Ukrainian-held city of Kherson across the water. Russian forces took it in the opening days of the 2022 invasion, and the town has been wedged between the river and the front ever since. When the Kakhovka dam was destroyed, most of its streets went under water. Its pre-war population of about 24,000 has shrunk dramatically: Washington’s estimate is that somewhere between 1,700 and 2,000 residents are left, most of them elderly, along with about 50 youngsters.
Accounts from inside are grim. Residents recently told the BBC that some had turned to eating weeds and that only one hospital was partly functioning. Ukraine’s foreign minister Andrii Sybiha has described a “full blockade”, while the Kremlin admitted in September that food and medicine were short but blamed Kyiv.
Under the plan, civilian officials from both countries would go door to door to assess needs. Anyone wishing to leave would be driven to a destination of their choice, either in Russia or in Ukraine, once a corridor has been cleared of mines. An American news outlet is to film the process; Newsmax said it had been granted exclusive access.
The First Lady said the channel she used grew out of earlier work reuniting 34 Ukrainian children with their families in six rounds. She learned about the town’s plight at an event during the UN General Assembly in New York. Meanwhile her husband keeps up pressure on Kyiv to accept a wider peace deal with Moscow.
