Oleshky Ceasefire Begins as Missiles Strike Kyiv
A local truce to facilitate an aid mission started Tuesday, but new attacks killed three people in the capital and Kharkiv overnight.
By Yasmin Nasser ·
Up to 2,000 residents remain trapped in the Russian-occupied town of Oleshky in southern Ukraine. A localized ceasefire between Kyiv and Moscow took effect at 3 a.m. Tuesday to support a humanitarian mission led by U.S. First Lady Melania Trump.
The pause in fighting is scheduled to continue through Saturday, though it could be extended. Negotiators from both nations and their respective militaries confirmed in separate statements that the truce had begun. The mission is designed to precede a new round of U.S.-brokered peace talks expected next month. The war has now lasted more than four and a half years.
Melania Trump’s office stated that she led discussions with civilian negotiators from Russia and Ukraine following briefings from U.N. officials on conditions in Oleshky. The town is in the partially occupied Kherson region, located about 340 miles southeast of Kyiv. Russian forces captured the area on the first day of the full-scale invasion in 2022. In June 2023, a dam collapse flooded the town, compounding the crisis. Residents are currently blocked from leaving by explosive mines and drone attacks, according to the U.N.
Aid workers plan to deliver doctors, medicines, food, and water to Oleshky before opening evacuation corridors. Deep mistrust between the two sides has previously derailed ceasefire attempts. The Dnipro River separates Russian and Ukrainian forces in this sector. Russian troops seized the nearby city of Kherson in early 2022 but retreated across the river months later.
Missile attacks resumed in the capital just minutes after the local ceasefire began. Multiple ballistic missile explosions shook Kyiv, and air alerts sounded in several parts of the country. City officials reported that Russian ballistic missiles damaged the grounds of a university in Kyiv late Monday, killing one person and injuring 10. In Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city, authorities said attacks late Monday killed two people and injured four.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy posted online shortly after the strikes. He said, "It is important that the world sees that Russia is showing nothing but a desire to kill and continue waging war."
