Melania Trump brokers truce for Ukraine city 'on brink of disaster', White House says

These residents were able to get out of Oleshky in spring this year

US First Lady Melania Trump has “successfully secured” a ceasefire between Russia and Ukraine in the Russian-occupied city of Oleshky, the White House has said.

The statement said the truce in the “front-line war city on the brink of disaster” would begin on 29 October, though Ukraine and Russia have so far not commented.

“Oleshky’s remaining population is comprised primarily of elderly residents who urgently need medical attention, medicine, food, and clean water,” it added.

Oleshky, in the Kherson region, was seized by Russian forces during the first days of Moscow’s full-scale invasion in February 2022. Remaining residents have recently resorted to eating garden weeds to survive.

The White House statement said Melania Trump and her representative had worked “directly with Russian and Ukrainian leadership to define the terms of the localised ceasefire”.

“Non-military, civilian leaders from both countries will work together to visit Oleshky residents in their homes and determine the level of assistance they require,” she is quoted as saying.

“Residents who wish to evacuate will receive coordinated support and transportation to their preferred destination. I anticipate some will want to go to Russia, and some to Ukraine.”

Melania Trump added that Oleshky residents “have limited electricity, live amid mined roads, and endure regular military attacks” and that “without my intervention, the possibility to bring humanitarian aid into the city and to evacuate the elderly would be impossible”.

The statement did not say how long the ceasefire would be in place for.

Oleshky has been without gas or electricity since 2023, so residents have had to find other solutions

Last month, some of the remaining Oleshky residents told the BBC harrowing accounts of how they were surviving in the city that was being constantly shelled and cut off from food and water.

They said that children remaining in wider Oleshky were suffering from malnutrition, a lack of medical services and were “degrading” without access to education.

Many also told the BBC there was only one hospital partially operational, opening a few days a week to perform critical amputations.

The local population was living under a “full blockade” by Russian forces, according to Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha.

Ukraine says it has attempted to deliver supplies to the area but has not had success in recent months.

The Kremlin in September acknowledged that Oleshky was facing “a critical situation” and “problems with supplies of food and medicine”, but added that “Russia’s military was working to resolve them” and blamed Kyiv.

Occupied by Russia since 2022, Oleshky is trapped between the Dnipro River, which separates it from Ukrainian positions, and Russian forces.

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Eating garden weeds to survive in Russian-occupied city cut off from food and water