A small city in southern Ukraine, cut off for months by fighting, is set to get a brief pause in the 4 1/2-year-old war so that aid can get in and residents can get out.
U.S. first lady Melania Trump brokered the localized ceasefire between Russia and Ukraine around Oleshky, a Russian-occupied city she said is “on the brink of disaster.”
Ukrainian, Russian and U.S. negotiators reached the deal Friday. Officials on all sides have confirmed it, but many
details have not been released.
Oleshky is located in Ukraine's partially occupied Kherson region. It sits on the Dnipro River, which separates Ukrainian forces from the city’s Russian occupiers. Moscow’s forces captured it on the first day of the full-scale invasion in February 2022. Its buildings were shelled and burned.
In June 2023, floodwaters swamped the city after the Kakhovka Dam collapsed in an explosion that an Associated Press investigation found was likely caused by the Russian military. Hundreds of residents were killed.
Once home to about 24,000 people, the city has had scarce food and medical supplies for months. There is no electricity, heat or running water. Roads out of town are mined and lined with burned-out cars, and drones buzz overhead. With another harsh winter approaching, those still there face death from hunger or disease.
Ukraine has repeatedly appealed for a local ceasefire to organize evacuations. As the occupying power, Russia is obligated under international law to make sure civilians under its control have what they need to survive.
The deal sets out three stages: a ceasefire, then delivery of humanitarian aid, then evacuation of civilians who want to leave Oleshky, according to Dmytro Lubinets, Ukraine’s human rights ombudsman and its chief negotiator in the talks.
Before any aid moves, mines will be cleared on the routes into the city, Lubinets said.
Russia’s human rights ombudswoman, Yana Lantratova, who took part in the negotiations, said firstly they plan to establish what residents need and then deliver food, medicine, hygiene products and other essentials. She said anyone who wants to leave the combat zone will be guaranteed safe passage.
Lubinets told the AP that the ceasefire will begin Tuesday, two days before the humanitarian mission starts, and will last several days.
Russia’s chief of the general staff, Gen. Valery Gerasimov, said Russian forces “will cease fire on the Kherson axis” from 4 a.m. Tuesday Moscow time, which is late Monday in the United States. He said Russian forces would also carry out “engineering reconnaissance” and ensure the “humanitarian convoy” can move safely into the city.
Ukraine's General Staff said the ceasefire will begin at 3 a.m. Tuesday Kyiv time, since Ukraine moves its clocks back an hour on Sunday while Russia does not.
Lubinets said the pause would apply across the Kherson region and neighboring areas essential to the operation.
Lubinets gave no details on how the ceasefire or the aid mission would be monitored or carried out, citing the sensitivity of the negotiations. He declined to say whether Melania Trump would travel to Ukraine.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said people who want to leave Oleshky will be able to. He would not say whether they would be taken to Russian- or Ukrainian-held territory. Asked how long the evacuation would last, he said only that it would most likely take several days.
“The operation will be carried out gradually and is extremely challenging to implement,” Lubinets said.
The first lady began talks on Oleshky after she heard about the situation at one of her events during the U.N. General Assembly session in September, the White House said. She and a representative then worked directly with Russian and Ukrainian leadership to set the terms. She had already been working with officials from both countries on a separate matter.
“When Melania Trump learned about the situation in Oleshky, the negotiation process began under her coordination,” Lubinets said. He said the sides spent several weeks discussing ideas and developing “new approaches, mechanisms and tools” to help civilians there survive.
Helping children in conflict zones has become one of her signature issues during her husband’s second term. She hosted a U.N. Security Council meeting on the issue earlier this year. Last year she wrote to Russian President Vladimir Putin about efforts to reunite families with children she described as “displaced by the war.” Her senior adviser, Marc Beckman, says she has helped reunite nearly three dozen children.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has lobbied various world leaders for help reuniting children he says were taken by Russia after the invasion began in 2022. The International Criminal Court in 2023 issued an arrest warrant for Putin for war crimes, accusing him of personal responsibility for the abductions of children from Ukraine.
The development comes as tensions have increased to new highs between the Trump administration and Ukraine’s government. Kyiv has faced restrictions on the satellite internet system it relies on to knock down Russian attacks, with President Donald Trump and other top U.S. officials sending mixed messages about who was responsible for throttling the Elon Musk-made Starshield system.
Trump also recently waived new Russia sanctions, reached an agreement with Russia to import diesel fuel and pushed Zelenskyy to make a deal to end the war. In renewed efforts to revive the peace process, Trump envoy Steve Witkoff traveled to Norway this week for talks with Zelenskyy before meeting Putin in St. Petersburg, Russia.
Zelenskyy did not mention the ceasefire in Oleshky during a remote appearance at the Hudson Institute, a Washington think tank, on Friday. He did note that American Patriot missile interceptors were still on hold.
He also spoke of the importance of the United States to renewed diplomatic efforts to end the war, including a possible joint meeting with Trump and Putin.
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Follow the AP’s coverage of the war in Ukraine at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine
