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Russia and Ukraine have agreed a local ceasefire around Oleshky, a town that Russian forces occupy on the far side of the Dnipro River from the city of Kherson. The arrangement was announced on Friday 23 October. Under it, Russian forces would halt fire from 4 a.m. local time on 27 October, and Ukraine’s General Staff agreed to observe the pause from the same time, according to the Moscow Times, which said the start time came from Russian Chief of General Staff Valery Gerasimov.
The pause is humanitarian in purpose. Teams are working to clear mines from heavily mined roads, and the arrangement is meant to allow food and medical deliveries and civilian evacuations through a designated safe passage. Ukraine says it has already used drones twice to deliver food to the town. The White House put the remaining population at 1,700 to 2,000 people, down from 24,000 before the war, the Moscow Times reported.
The deal followed secret consultations brokered by U.S. first lady Melania Trump with civilian negotiators from Russia and Ukraine, the Associated Press reported. Melania Trump called Oleshky “a frontline war city on the brink of disaster,” according to the Moscow Times. The Kremlin said Putin had discussed the town with Trump, and that Russia’s human rights commissioner was working on humanitarian efforts there.
The talks timetable is less settled. Zelenskyy said negotiators from Ukraine, Russia and the United States agreed to technical-level meetings in the first half of November in Abu Dhabi, and that he wanted them held as early as possible. AP reported that a Kremlin spokesman said the next round was likely in Abu Dhabi around mid-November. It would be the fourth round brokered by the Trump administration, after Geneva in February. A U.S. official told the Moscow Times that the three countries may meet within a couple of weeks, in Abu Dhabi or Switzerland.
The two sides remain far apart on the core questions. AP reported that Moscow demands full control of four annexed Ukrainian regions and Crimea, Ukrainian withdrawal from the four regions, renunciation of NATO membership and a smaller Ukrainian military. Kyiv backs a ceasefire that freezes the front lines, followed by talks, and insists on security guarantees. Putin said Moscow remains “ready to negotiate and seek solutions to this difficult, complex situation.”
The local deal came shortly after a deadly Russian missile and drone barrage on Kyiv, which followed Putin saying he agreed in principle to restart talks, AP reported. Zelenskyy said that when Russia responds to negotiations with ballistic missiles, real pressure on Russia is needed. Both developments are reported side by side, and neither side has shifted its stated position on territory.
Why it matters: a humanitarian pause in one town is small in scale, but it is a concrete agreement between parties that have struggled to reach one. AP said the initiative raised hopes for similar missions in future, while showing no clear shift in either side’s core positions. The outcome will show whether limited arrangements can be made to work while the wider talks are still being set up.
Several things remain unknown. The reports do not say whether the ceasefire will hold for the whole evacuation, or how many civilians are expected to leave. The timing and location of the November talks are still provisional, with sources giving Abu Dhabi and Switzerland, and both mid-November and a couple of weeks as the likely dates.
Sources
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