Six-Day Truce in Oleshky Holds for 30 Hours as Aid Mission Starts in Ukraine

A six-day ceasefire in the Russian-occupied southern Ukrainian city of Oleshky has held through its first day and night, officials said Wednesday. The truce is meant to let a humanitarian operation deliver food and medicine to about 2,000 remaining residents and evacuate anyone who wants to leave.

According to the Independent and ABC News, the pause began Tuesday and is due to run through Sunday. If it lasts, it will be the first significant truce the two sides have observed since Russia's full-scale invasion more than four and a half years ago. Earlier attempts to halt the fighting either never took hold or quickly fell apart.

What officials say about the first 30 hours

Russia's ombudsperson, Yana Lantratova, and Ukraine's human rights ombudsperson, Dmytro Lubinets, both said Wednesday that no violations had been recorded in Oleshky for 30 hours. The city sits in Ukraine's Kherson region and has been devastated by the war.

The fighting has not stopped elsewhere. ABC News reported that Moscow and Kyiv continued to strike each other while they waited for a date for the next round of U.S.-brokered talks.

How the aid mission is supposed to work

Lubinets, who is Ukraine's lead negotiator for the aid mission, told Ukraine's private 1+1 television that a U.S. representative will go into Oleshky together with civilian officials from Russia and Ukraine. That will happen once the road into the city has been cleared of mines and the humanitarian cargo has been delivered, he said. Representatives of all three countries will then be present on the spot.

Negotiators involved in the mission said doctors, medicines, food and water would be sent in before any evacuation corridors are opened. Lubinets said evacuees will be free to choose whether to go to Ukraine or to Russia, and that authorities will try to keep aid flowing for residents who prefer to stay.

ABC News noted that Russian occupation forces strictly limit who can enter Oleshky, and there was no news yet on how the operation was unfolding on the ground.

Who brokered it and who is thanking whom

The White House said U.S. first lady Melania Trump brokered the humanitarian mission after the city's plight caught her attention. The Independent and ABC News also reported that Pope Leo XIV spoke this month with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Russian President Vladimir Putin, urging them to allow aid into Oleshky and the safe evacuation of civilians, according to the Vatican.

Zelenskyy said he was grateful to Melania Trump for her role in halting the fighting in and around the city and said Ukraine was ready to receive evacuees. Lantratova said the first lady's personal involvement was “of great importance to the entire process.” Both governments are eager to win the approval of President Donald Trump as he pushes for a peace settlement, ABC News reported.

What this means for the wider war and for civilians

For the roughly 2,000 people still living in Oleshky, the truce is the condition for getting food, medicine and a safe way out. For the broader conflict, it is a small test of whether the two sides can keep any agreement in place at all.

The pause coincides with U.S.-led plans to bring Russian and Ukrainian officials back to the table next month for technical talks on how to move toward ending the war, though neither side shows signs of giving up its main demands. Zelenskyy told reporters the talks, expected in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, have not been scheduled because Washington is awaiting developments in the Middle East. He said he hopes a date can be set, possibly between Nov. 6 and 10, after the Nov. 3 midterm election.

What happens next

The ceasefire is scheduled to last until Sunday. In the meantime, the road into Oleshky must be cleared of mines, aid must be delivered, and only then are evacuation corridors expected to open. Whether the truce survives the full six days, and whether it leads to anything broader, is not yet known.

Around Prague, based on reporting by The Independent, ABC News