KYIV (The Thursday Times) — Russian forces used the six-day ceasefire that US First Lady Melania Trump brokered in Oleshky to reoccupy positions Ukrainian troops had spent nearly a year destroying, the head of Ukraine’s Kherson regional administration said, days after she hosted Russian and Ukrainian officials at the White House to celebrate the truce.
Oleksandr Prokudin said Russian troops used the pause, from October 27 to November 1, to rotate personnel, reinforce their positions and move drones, artillery, ammunition and Grad rocket launchers into the occupied town on the Dnipro River, as well as more than 1,000 additional troops into occupied parts of the Kherson region. He warned that attacks on Kherson could intensify.
‘A modest spark’
At the White House event last Thursday, Kirill Dmitriev, President Vladimir Putin’s envoy, thanked the first lady for her “distinguished humanitarian role” and said Putin had personally given instructions for the operation. The Ukrainian officials who spoke included Davyd Arakhamia, who leads President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s party in parliament, and the human rights ombudsman Dmytro Lubinets. “Definitely we would like to ask you to keep going and to find new missions and to de-escalate more as much as possible,” Arakhamia told her.
“Let Oleshky be the modest spark that grows into a lasting flame of peace,” Melania Trump said. She said nearly 800 people had been evacuated, and that she and her adviser Marc Beckman had worked directly with Russian and Ukrainian leaders on the terms after she learned of the town’s plight at an event on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in September.
Oleshky, once home to about 24,000 people, was captured on the first day of Russia’s full-scale invasion and has been without electricity, heating or running water. About 2,000 people were thought to remain when the truce began.
More evacuations sought
Lubinets said on Tuesday that Ukraine was exploring another safe evacuation for residents still in Oleshky and nearby villages after his office received more requests, though the Kremlin has publicly ruled out further humanitarian operations for now. He said 30 Ukrainian children had so far been returned to their families with the first lady’s help.
Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha urged partners at the G7 meeting to use the momentum of the Oleshky mission to secure a full ceasefire, as Ukrainian, Russian and US officials meet for peace talks in Abu Dhabi.
