Melania Trump Brokers Local Truce in Oleshky, Kherson Region

The White House announced on Friday, 23 October, that US First Lady Melania Trump has brokered a local ceasefire between Russia and Ukraine in the city of Oleshky. The city lies in the Russian-occupied part of Ukraine's Kherson region, in the south of the country. The deal covers only this city, not the war as a whole, and takes effect on 29 October.

According to the White House statement, both sides agreed to temporarily stop all military activity in Oleshky. The aim is to allow humanitarian aid to be delivered and to prepare the evacuation of civilians along a specially created security corridor.

A critical situation in the city

Oleshky is under constant shelling. Residents who remain have gone for months without electricity and proper medical care, and the city lacks food and medicine. The roads leading out are mined, making it practically impossible to leave.

Melania Trump described the situation as critical and said the city is on the brink of catastrophe. In her words, those left are mostly elderly people in urgent need of medicine, food, clean water and medical care. She said that without her intervention it would not have been possible to deliver aid or evacuate older residents.

Trump and her representatives held talks with the Russian and Ukrainian leadership to agree the terms of the local truce.

What came before

A few days earlier, Pope Leo XIV asked Russian President Vladimir Putin in a phone call to allow humanitarian aid into the city and the evacuation of people. Soon afterwards, Dmytro Lubinets, the Ukrainian parliament's human rights commissioner, and Kremlin press secretary Dmitry Peskov confirmed that Kyiv and Moscow were working to resolve the situation.