A six-day ceasefire in a Russian-occupied city in southern Ukraine has held through its first day and night, officials said on Wednesday, despite Moscow and Kyiv continuing to strike each other elsewhere.
The localised truce in the devastated southern city of Oleshky began on Tuesday and is expected to run until Sunday. It comes as a planned humanitarian operation works to bring essential food and medicine to roughly 2,000 remaining residents, as well as evacuate those wishing to leave.
Should the ceasefire hold, it will mark the first time since Russia invaded its neighbour more than four and a half years ago that the two sides have maintained a significant truce. Previous attempts to pause the fighting have either failed to take hold or quickly unravelled.
The move coincides with US-led plans to bring officials from Moscow and Kyiv back to negotiations next month for technical talks on ending the war, even as neither side shows signs of stepping back from their key demands.
Russia’s ombudsperson Yana Lantratova and Ukraine’s human rights ombudsperson Dmytro Lubinets both said Wednesday there had been no ceasefire violations in Oleshky for 30 hours.
The plight of the city in Ukraine's southern Kherson region caught the attention of US first lady Melania Trump, and the White House said she brokered the humanitarian mission.
Pope Leo XIV also spoke this month with presidents Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine and Vladimir Putin of Russia, urging them to allow humanitarian aid into Oleshky and the safe evacuation of civilians, the Vatican said.
Zelensky said he was grateful to Melania Trump for her role in halting the fighting in and around Oleshky, where she says humanitarian corridors are being established to take people out.
“We are grateful that they are organising this possibility to evacuate people,” Zelensky said, adding that Ukraine was ready to receive evacuees from the town.
“Her personal involvement is of great importance to the entire process,” Russia’s Lantratova said.
Both sides are eager to win US President Donald Trump’s approval as he pushes for an elusive peace settlement.
Elsewhere, the war rages on
A Russian drone strike on the northeastern Ukrainian city of Kharkiv overnight wounded five people, including a four-year-old child, Ukraine’s State Emergency Service said.
The jet-powered drone attack started a major fire that set alight an apartment building, private house and an industrial building, the emergency services said.
In Russia, meanwhile, the Defence Ministry said that air defences downed 531 Ukrainian drones from late Tuesday through early Wednesday.
Officials said apartment buildings and industrial infrastructure in two regions were targeted, injuring five people.
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