First Lady Melania Trump Helps Secure Local Ceasefire for Aid Mission in Southern Ukraine
A temporary ceasefire in the town of Oleshky, southern Ukraine, began early Tuesday to allow humanitarian aid, following negotiations led by U.S. first lady Melania Trump, while missile attacks continued elsewhere in the country.
A localized ceasefire between Ukrainian and Russian forces took effect at 3 a.m. on Tuesday to enable a humanitarian convoy into the Russian-occupied town of Oleshky in southern Ukraine. The pause, expected to last through Saturday, was arranged after U.S. first lady Melania Trump met with civilian negotiators from both sides and U.N. officials briefed her on the situation.
According to her office, Trump led the talks that secured the agreement, which will allow doctors, medicines, food and water to be delivered before evacuation corridors are opened. Up to 2,000 residents of Oleshky have been cut off from supplies due to mines and drone activity, the United Nations said.
Both Russian and Ukrainian negotiators, as well as military representatives, confirmed the ceasefire in separate statements. However, minutes after the truce began, multiple ballistic missile explosions struck Kyiv, prompting air-raid alerts across the country. Late Monday, Russian missiles hit a university campus in Kyiv, killing one person and injuring ten, while attacks in Kharkiv resulted in two deaths and four injuries.
"It is important that the world sees that Russia is showing nothing but a desire to kill and continue waging war," Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy wrote in an online post.
The town of Oleshky, located about 550 km southeast of Kyiv on the Dnipro River, fell to Russian forces on the first day of the 2022 invasion and suffered severe flooding in June 2023 after a dam collapse. The aid mission is part of broader U.S.-brokered talks slated for next month aimed at ending the conflict that has lasted more than four and a half years.