Melania Trump Brokered Ceasefire Begins in Oleshky as Kyiv Faces New Attacks

A localized ceasefire between Russia and Ukraine took effect at 3 a.m. Tuesday morning. The pause was arranged to facilitate a humanitarian aid mission into the Russian-occupied town of Oleshky. U.S. First Lady Melania Trump led the negotiations for this specific truce after meeting with United Nations officials who briefed her on the conditions in the town.

The agreement allows aid workers to deliver supplies to Oleshky later this week. According to the U.N., up to 2,000 people are currently stranded in the town with limited food and medicine. They have been unable to leave due to explosive mines and frequent drone attacks in the surrounding area. Negotiators stated that doctors, medications, food, and water will be delivered before evacuation corridors are opened.

Both Russian and Ukrainian negotiators, along with their respective militaries, confirmed in separate statements that the ceasefire had begun. The local truce is scheduled to last through Saturday, with the possibility of an extension. This pause is intended to precede a new round of U.S.-brokered talks expected next month. Those broader negotiations aim to end the war, which has continued for more than four and a half years.

The calm in the south did not extend to the capital. Minutes after the ceasefire started, multiple ballistic missile explosions were reported in Kyiv. Air alerts sounded across several parts of the country. Late Monday, Russian ballistic missiles had already damaged the grounds of a university in Kyiv, killing one person and injuring 10. In Kharkiv, Ukraine's second-largest city, authorities reported that attacks late Monday killed two people and injured four.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy responded to the strikes in an online post. He wrote that it was important for the world to see that Russia was showing a desire to kill and continue waging war. Deep mistrust between the two sides has previously thwarted attempts at ceasefires, making this temporary pause a delicate operation.

Oleshky is located in the partially occupied Kherson region, approximately 550 kilometers southeast of Kyiv. The Dnipro River separates Russian and Ukrainian forces in this area. Moscow captured the town on the first day of its full-scale invasion in 2022. In June 2023, floodwaters inundated the town following a dam collapse. The town sits directly across the river from Kherson, the region's administrative capital, which Russian forces seized in early 2022 before retreating across the river several months later.