Trump-Aided Truce Opens Oleshky Aid Route

A local ceasefire between Russia and Ukraine took effect at 3 a.m. Tuesday to facilitate a humanitarian aid mission.

The pause in fighting was arranged by U.S. first lady Melania Trump. Her office stated she led talks with civilian negotiators from both sides after receiving briefings from United Nations officials.

The mission targets the town of Oleshky in the Kherson region. According to the U.N., up to 2,000 people are currently stranded there. They lack sufficient food and medicine and cannot leave due to explosive mines and drone attacks in the area.

Negotiators confirmed the delivery of doctors, medicines, food supplies, and water will occur before evacuation corridors open. Russian and Ukrainian negotiators, along with both militaries, confirmed in separate statements that the ceasefire had begun.

The local truce is scheduled to last through Saturday, though previous attempts have failed due to deep mistrust between the two countries. This aid effort is planned ahead of a new round of U.S.-brokered talks expected next month. Those talks aim to end the war after more than four and a half years of fighting.

While the southern front paused, missile attacks continued in other parts of Ukraine. Minutes after the 3 a.m. start time, ballistic missile explosions shook Kyiv. Air alerts sounded across multiple parts of the country.

Late Monday, Russian ballistic missiles damaged the grounds of a university in Kyiv. City officials said one person was killed and 10 were injured. In Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city, authorities reported that attacks killed two people and injured four.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy responded to the late Monday strikes in an online post. He wrote, “It is important that the world sees that Russia is showing nothing but a desire to kill and continue waging war.”

Oleshky is located about 550 kilometers southeast of Kyiv. Russian forces captured the town on the first day of their full-scale invasion in 2022. Floodwaters inundated the area in June 2023 following a dam collapse. The town sits across the Dnipro River from Kherson, the region’s administrative capital.