Ceasefire begins in southern Ukraine to allow aid to Oleshky

MYKOLAIV, Ukraine. A local ceasefire between Ukraine and Russia took effect at 3 a.m. Tuesday morning in the southern Kherson region. The pause in fighting was arranged to allow a humanitarian aid mission into the Russian-occupied town of Oleshky later this week. The agreement was brokered by U.S. First Lady Melania Trump, whose office confirmed she led negotiations with civilian representatives from both nations after receiving briefings from United Nations officials.

The ceasefire is scheduled to last through Saturday, potentially extending if conditions remain stable. According to the United Nations, up to 2,000 residents remain stranded in Oleshky with limited food and medicine. The population is trapped by explosive mines and continued drone attacks in the area. Russian and Ukrainian negotiators, along with their respective militaries, issued separate statements confirming that the local pause had begun.

The aid mission is a precursor to a new round of U.S.-brokered talks between Russia and Ukraine expected next month. Those negotiations aim to end a war that has persisted for more than four and a half years. Negotiators involved in the current mission stated that doctors, medicines, food supplies, and water will be delivered to Oleshky before evacuation corridors are opened for the remaining residents.

Despite the localized pause, missile attacks continued elsewhere in the country. Minutes after the ceasefire began, multiple ballistic missile explosions shook Kyiv, and air alerts sounded in several regions. Late Monday, Russian ballistic missiles damaged the grounds of a university in the capital, killing one person and injuring ten, according to city officials. In Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city, authorities reported that attacks late Monday killed two people and injured four others.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy reacted to the continued strikes in an online post shortly after the events in Kyiv. “It is important that the world sees that Russia is showing nothing but a desire to kill and continue waging war,” he wrote. Deep mistrust between the two sides has previously thwarted attempts to establish similar ceasefires.

Oleshky is located in the partially occupied Kherson region, approximately 550 kilometers southeast of Kyiv. The town sits across the Dnipro River from Kherson, the region’s administrative capital. Russian forces captured Oleshky on the first day of their full-scale invasion in 2022. In June 2023, floodwaters inundated the town following a dam collapse. Russian forces initially seized Kherson in early 2022 but retreated across the river several months later.

The next scheduled step in the diplomatic process is the delivery of the humanitarian convoy to Oleshky. This mission is designed to precede the opening of evacuation corridors for the 2,000 stranded residents. U.S.-brokered talks between Russia and Ukraine are expected to begin next month.