2,000 Trapped in Oleshky as Local Ceasefire Opens Aid Window

A localized truce in southern Ukraine began at 3 a.m. Tuesday to let an aid mission reach Oleshky, where up to 2,000 people are stranded with dwindling food and medicine. Explosive mines and drone attacks have kept residents from leaving, according to the U.N.

The pause was brokered by U.S. first lady Melania Trump, whose office said she led talks with civilian negotiators from Russia and Ukraine after meeting U.N. officials briefed on conditions in the town. Negotiators from both countries, along with their militaries, issued separate statements confirming the ceasefire had started.

The pause is scheduled to run through Saturday and could be extended. The aid mission is planned before a new round of U.S.-brokered Russia-Ukraine talks expected next month, aimed at ending the war after more than 4½ years of fighting. Negotiators involved in the mission said doctors, medicines, food supplies and water would reach Oleshky before evacuation corridors open.

Minutes after 3 a.m., ballistic missile explosions shook Kyiv and air alerts sounded across multiple parts of the country. Late Monday, Russian ballistic missiles damaged the grounds of a Kyiv university, killing one person and wounding 10, city officials said. In Kharkiv, attacks late Monday killed two people and injured four.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy wrote in an online post: "It is important that the world sees that Russia is showing nothing but a desire to kill and continue waging war."

Oleshky sits in the partially occupied Kherson region, about 550 kilometers southeast of Kyiv, where the Dnipro River divides Russian and Ukrainian forces. Moscow's forces captured the town on the first day of the full-scale invasion in 2022. Floodwaters inundated the town in June 2023 after a dam collapse. Deep mistrust between Russia and Ukraine has previously thwarted ceasefire attempts.