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Six-day ceasefire holds in Russian-occupied Ukrainian city as aid mission prepares

The White House says first lady Melania Trump brokered the truce in Oleshky. Ukrainian and Russian officials report no violations in the first 30 hours.

19 news outlets reported this
Liberal9 outletsCenter6 outletsConservative4 outlets
Published 4 min read
Overview

A local ceasefire began at 3 a.m. on Tuesday, Oct. 27, in Oleshky, a Russian-occupied city on the Dnipro River in Ukraine's Kherson region. It is meant to let food and medicine in and let civilians leave. The White House said first lady Melania Trump secured the deal.

Ukraine's human rights commissioner, Dmytro Lubinets, and his Russian counterpart, Yana Lantratova, said on Wednesday there had been no violations in the first 30 hours, according to ABC News. The truce is due to run until late Sunday, Nov. 1. Melania Trump said on X that the area covered has widened within the Kherson region to give convoys safe passage.

BBC News and UPI report that aid deliveries come first, followed by an evacuation planned for Friday. Russia seized Oleshky in the first days of its February 2022 invasion. About 24,000 people lived there before the war.

Estimates of those who remain range from about 1,700 to 2,000 in the city, with several thousand more in surrounding areas. Residents and relatives told the BBC they fear Russia could check evacuees' phones or block their return to Ukraine. The ceasefire does not cover the rest of Ukraine, where Russian strikes on Kyiv continued.

Three sides of the story

Liberal9 outlets

The Guardian and ABC News place the truce inside the wider war. The Guardian reports that 1,500 to 2,000 people have lived under a Russian blockade, with the last food delivery to shops in May. It says Ukrainian observers expect a Kremlin propaganda tour, and it quotes volunteer Ksenia Arkhipova on residents' fear that evacuees' phones will be checked.

In its own wording, it calls the truce an apparent Kremlin effort to win favor with Trump before talks and the midterms. It also covers the Nordic leaders' call with Putin, Denmark's prime minister Mette Frederiksen's scepticism and Russia's foreign minister Sergei Lavrov's reply. ABC says it would be the first significant truce since the full-scale invasion, and it relays Zelenskyy's complaints about slowed Patriot deliveries and his thanks to the UK for new funding.

Both note that attacks continued elsewhere, including on Kyiv. NPR reports that the truce, brokered by Melania Trump, began as missile attacks resumed in Kyiv. The New York Times reports that many people in Oleshky have run out of food amid constant bombardment.

Center6 outlets

BBC News reports that the truce has been extended across the Kherson region, citing Melania Trump, the press secretary to Ukraine's ombudsman and Kherson deputy head Oleksandr Tolokonnikov. It quotes Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov and Ukrainian foreign minister Andrii Sybiha, and says Pope Leo XIV also appealed to Putin. It includes residents' accounts of hunger and mines and their fear that Russia may inspect phones.

It notes that Russian-installed official Vladimir Saldo's claim that most residents want to stay in Russia has not been corroborated, and it relays Zelensky's warning about routes demined by Russia. A second BBC report says Ukraine estimates some 6,000 people remain in the city and surroundings, including 200 children, and quotes Lubinets confirming Ukraine is honoring its commitments. UPI reports Lubinets's statement, Russia's confirmation, population figures and the planned Friday evacuation, partly citing BBC.

The Journal reports that the ceasefire brokered by Melania Trump has begun in a starving Ukrainian city, to allow aid in and evacuations.

Conservative4 outlets

Fox News leads with Melania Trump's role. An exclusive cites her senior adviser Marc Beckman saying Ukraine and Putin each named her an exclusive intermediary by letter, and that she handled the talks alone on the US side. It also says it obtained signature pages of the Oct. 23 agreement signed by Lantratova and Lubinets.

A second Fox report quotes her statement calling Oleshky a city on the "brink of disaster" with mostly elderly residents, and the White House saying both sides agreed to halt military action. It quotes Lubinets and Russia's defense ministry. The New York Post focuses on residents' fears of being taken to Russia, citing Kherson city council deputy Oksana Pohomii, a volunteer and an Institute for the Study of War assessment.

It notes Putin called Oleshky a "Russian settlement" and that Newsmax journalists will be on site. The Washington Times reports the ceasefire is holding as Moscow and Kyiv await US-led talks.

All sources: 45 articles from 19 outlets

Liberal (21)

Center (14)

Conservative (10)

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