Melania Trump Announces Temporary Pause in Fighting Around Ukraine’s Oleshky to Allow Aid and Evacuations
The White House said Oct. 23 that Russia and Ukraine have agreed to halt military operations around the occupied southern town of Oleshky so aid can reach roughly 1,700 residents and civilians can evacuate. The two sides disagree on the start date.
WASHINGTON — First lady Melania Trump helped broker a temporary halt in fighting around the Russian-occupied town of Oleshky in southern Ukraine, the White House announced Friday, to let humanitarian aid reach about 1,700 residents and allow civilians to evacuate.
Russia and Ukraine agreed to stop military operations around the town in the coming days, the White House said. Oleshky sits on the front line of the war and has been largely cut off from food and electricity. The exact start of the pause is in dispute: the first lady said it would begin Oct. 29, while Russia’s top military officer, Gen. Valery Gerasimov, told Russian state media it would start Oct. 27.
“The situation in Oleshky is dire,” the first lady said in a statement. “It was abundantly clear that without my intervention, the possibility to bring humanitarian aid into the city and to evacuate the elderly would be impossible.”
Oleshky had about 24,000 residents before the war and has been under Russian occupation since the full-scale invasion began. The U.N. Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine said in June that the Kherson region, where Oleshky is located, was home to roughly 6,000 civilians, including at least 180 children.
How the agreement came together
The first lady became aware of the crisis after a private discussion at an event in New York during the U.N. General Assembly last month, the White House said. She negotiated the arrangement with Dmytro Lubinets, Ukraine’s human rights ombudsman, and his Russian counterpart, Yana Lantratova. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov confirmed the agreement and said Russian military personnel were still working out the timing of the operation.
President Donald Trump said the pause grew out of the first lady’s work reuniting Ukrainian children who were taken from their families and relocated to Russia, an effort she has pursued since last year. “They contacted both sides, and both sides wanted to do it,” he told reporters ahead of a trip to Florida. “She’s done a great job.”
The relief effort will be run by civilian leaders from Russia and Ukraine, who will meet with residents and be accompanied by “an impartial American media organization” to document the work, according to the first lady. “Residents who wish to evacuate will receive coordinated support and transportation to their preferred destination,” she said. A Ukrainian official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Kyiv had enlisted a number of people for the effort as conditions in the town grew worse, and expressed cautious hope that the mediation would succeed.
Warnings of starvation in the town
Ukrainian officials have warned for weeks that civilians in Oleshky were running out of food and medicine. Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha wrote in an Oct. 17 social media post that Russia was trying to turn the town “into a death trap,” adding: “Residents doubt they can survive this winter. Families are starving, surviving on leftover garden vegetables, preserves and even snails.”
Pope Leo XIV raised the crisis in a phone call with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Oct. 16, according to Ukrainian officials, who said they had asked a number of world leaders to press Moscow for aid access and evacuations.
Reporting based on coverage by USA Today.
