Ceasefire takes effect around Oleshky: what we know about the humanitarian operation

The ceasefire is in place

At 03:00 Kyiv time on 27 October a ceasefire took effect in a designated area around the temporarily occupied town of Oleshky in the Kherson region, Ukraine’s parliamentary human rights commissioner Dmytro Lubinets announced. He said the sides were complying with the arrangements he had reached, as head of the negotiating group, with Russia’s human rights commissioner Yana Lantratova, with mediation and coordination by US First Lady Melania Trump.

Ukraine’s General Staff explained the day before that the ceasefire is solely for a humanitarian operation: delivering aid to residents still in the town and preparing for the free movement of civilians out of Oleshky. The military urged people to rely only on official sources and not to spread rumours about routes, times and places of movement of people and humanitarian convoys.

AP noted that the local pause began as missile attacks on Kyiv resumed the same night.

Why Oleshky

Oleshky sits on the eastern bank of the Dnipro, opposite Kherson city. Russian troops seized it in the first days of the 2022 invasion. According to Reuters, the town suffered heavy war damage and flooding after the destruction of the Kakhovka dam in 2023, and the US says only a few thousand of its pre-war population of 24,000 remain. Residents and officials have reported acute shortages of food and medicine.

How the operation is meant to work

Marc Beckman, senior adviser to Melania Trump, told Ukrinform that Ukraine and Russia had agreed on the composition of civilian teams that will visit residents, assess their needs and help with evacuation. Lubinets will lead the Ukrainian team.

Beckman said 29 October was chosen as the start of the humanitarian operation because both sides consider it the earliest date that guarantees residents’ safety while delivering medical staff, medicine, clean water and food and starting evacuation preparations. He estimated the work would take five to seven days after 29 October and did not rule out extending the ceasefire if both sides deem it necessary.

Will residents be able to choose where to go

According to Beckman, Russia assured Ukraine and the United States that it would respect residents’ wishes – to leave for Ukraine, for Russia, or to stay at home. He said the sides had developed “safeguard mechanisms”, but details of the guarantees and of the response to violations are not being made public at the request of both governments.

An additional safeguard is meant to be the presence of American journalists: Newsmax has agreed to go to the site, document events and record testimonies of those involved, the adviser said.

What comes next

Beckman said the First Lady’s team is also working with Ukraine and Russia on the next phase of reuniting Ukrainian children with their families; six previous operations helped reunite 34 children. Reuters notes that the arrangement is limited in scope and does not address the wider war, but is a rare example of direct cooperation between the two sides.

The key question for the coming days is whether the ceasefire holds and whether civilians will genuinely be able to choose where to go.