Oleshky

FORT RUCKER, Ala. — There’s a scene in Melania Trump’s documentary in which she enters the room as Donald Trump is rehearsing his inaugural address.

When he says the line about how “my proudest legacy will be that of a peacemaker,” she offers a quick, verbal edit.

“Peacemaker and unifier,” she tells her husband to say instead.

But Melania is the Trump who is credited with recently bringing peace, if only for six days, to one war-torn city in southern Ukraine — an unusual intervention into an active war by an American first lady. Two days after Republican losses in the midterm elections knocked the president out of the spotlight, Melania Trump hosted Russian and Ukrainian officials at the White House to celebrate the temporary ceasefire.

It’s part of a burst of public activity by a first lady regarded as among the most private women to hold the role, and it comes just before the Nov. 20 release by Prime Video of “Melania: The Series,” a follow-up to the first lady’s documentary from January.

On Thursday, the first lady headed to Alabama to address U.S. troops — her third big event since the election. It follows a trip to Louisiana last weekend to announce a multimillion-dollar private endowment to fund scholarships for college students once in foster care.

Military families are a focus for Melania Trump

The first lady has made support for military families part of her portfolio. Her latest trip has taken her to Fort Rucker, an Army post in southern Alabama, with Usha Vance, the wife of Vice President JD Vance, a former Marine.

Before a backdrop that included a duo of Apache and Blackhawk helicopters, both women during the early Thanksgiving visit on Thursday thanked an assembly of hundreds of soldiers and their families for their service to the nation.

“The sacrifices of military families don’t make the headlines, but you are the foundation for the world’s most capable military,” Melania Trump said, urging Americans who will spend the holidays with loved ones to “take a moment to think of America’s service people.”

After their remarks, both women spoke with members of the crowd, pausing to shake hands and take photos.

Later, they would spend time with elementary students attending school on the base. Last year, both women marked the Thanksgiving season with a similar visit to Marine Corps members in North Carolina, thanking them for their service and recognizing the sacrifices their families make.

On Wednesday, they both accompanied their husbands to Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington, Virginia, for the annual Veterans Day observance.

Melania Trump says she was involved in the plans for Oleshky

The White House announced in late October that the first lady had brokered a temporary ceasefire in the Russian-occupied town of Oleshky in southern Ukraine as it faced a starvation crisis. The pause gave time for about 800 people to leave the city and allowed for deliveries of humanitarian aid to those who chose to stay.

On Thursday, Usha Vance called the first lady “a powerful voice for peace.” Last week, Melania Trump brought together at the White House officials from Russia and Ukraine who helped implement the ceasefire and talked about her role.

“I was involved in every stage of the planning,” she said. “I reviewed demining plans, aerial images, assessed roadways and discussed evacuation routes, hospital access, vehicles and medical resources. I was made aware of the preferred dates and timing of the operation.”

She thanked the Russian and Ukrainian presidents for their cooperation and said Oleshky could be the model for peace between their countries.

“Let Oleshky be the modest spark that grows into a lasting flame of peace,” she said. This week U.S. officials held talks with Russian and Ukrainian counterparts in the United Arab Emirates, but there was no breakthrough.

After the White House announced her role, President Trump said his wife is “doing better than the professionals” on his team whose shuttle diplomacy between Russia’s Vladimir Putin and Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelenskyy has yet to bring the nearly 5-year-old war to a close.

Her work on Oleshky followed her outreach to Putin last year as she took on the matter of helping reunite children and families separated by the war. She so far has helped return nearly three dozen children to their families.

She’ll be on the red carpet for a premiere of the Melania series

The first lady will head to New York City next week for the world premiere at Lincoln Center of “Melania: The Series.” The two new Prime Video episodes are billed as showing new aspects of her roles as wife, mother and first lady that weren’t in her documentary.

The first lady described the episodes in an interview on Fox News Channel’s “Fox & Friends” as having “more conversation, one-on-one, with me.”

The episodes, which begin streaming Nov. 20, are supposed to include some surprises, too.

“There are some private questions that I will answer that people never heard before,” she said in the interview. “So it’s kind of exciting.”

Superville writes for the Associated Press. AP writer Meg Kinnard contributed from Columbia, S.C.

Ukrainian officials are expressing major regrets about a White House-brokered temporary ceasefire in Oleshky, which sits on the Russian-held side of the Dnipro River, the body of water that serves as a dividing line between the opposing forces. Kyiv is concerned Russian forces will once again use this decimated locale to bombard Kherson City with cross-river drone and artillery attacks. 

As many as 2,000 Ukrainian citizens were left in this town at the edge of the front line, caught between drone and artillery volleys launched by both sides. Intensive Ukrainian drone operations had largely ran the Russians out of Oleshky and a wide swath of territory as far as 30 km behind the lines, according to the Kyiv Post, citing Russian sources. This had reduced, but not prevented, Russian attacks against the Ukrainian side of the river. As we reported last year, Moscow’s forces have been carrying out widespread drone strikes on largely civilian targets in this region for quite some time in order to wear down the population, primarily in the large city of Kherson just across the river.

The military governor of the Kherson region has claimed that Russia took advantage of the ceasefire, brokered by First Lady Melania Trump to restore its forces in the bombed-out town. The statements by Oleksandr Prokudin follow comments made by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and a Ukrainian military officer that the Russians moved troops and equipment into the area under the cover of the ceasefire and will use them to step up attacks across the Dnipro.

“It took us about a year to eliminate what they have now restored during the ceasefire,” Prokudin told Ukrainian Pravda. “They have restored almost everything. They used this time very effectively: they carried out personnel rotations, rebuilt completely destroyed positions, and resupplied themselves with food, generators, and fuel.”

During the ceasefire, the Russians moved drones, artillery and ammunition into Oleshky, Prokudin stated. 

“Furthermore, enemy troops searched Oleshky for basements to set up new hideouts for drone operators,” the Ukrainian official noted, adding that an increase in enemy strikes should be expected. 

“Currently, the occupiers are launching approximately 700–800 drone attacks per day, deliberately terrorizing the civilian population of Kherson and the coastal communities,” he said. “They will 100% increase.”

A video of Russian forces moving back into Oleshky, which you can see below, emerged on social media on Nov. 2, the day after the ceasefire ended.

Russia has not officially commented on these claims, which TWZ cannot independently verify. We reached out to Melania Trump’s office for comment about the Ukrainian claims.

How Did The Ceasefire Come To Be?

Home to some 24,000 people before the all-out Russian invasion, Oleshky was captured as the Russians pushed toward the Dnipro River. With the city now largely in ruins after more than four years of conflict, the population, as we noted earlier in this story, had dwindled to fewer than 2,000, mostly senior citizens and children unable to get out, according to the White House. In October, First Lady Melania Trump brokered a deal that would allow many of those residents to leave.

“The situation in Oleshky is dire. Oleshky is a front-line war city on the brink of disaster. Oleshky’s remaining population is comprised primarily of elderly residents who urgently need medical attention, medicine, food, and clean water,” the First Lady said in announcing that the localized ceasefire, the first of its kind, would commence Oct. 29. “The people of Oleshky have limited electricity, live amid mined roads, and endure regular military attacks. It was abundantly clear that without my intervention, the possibility to bring humanitarian aid into the city and to evacuate the elderly would be impossible.”

The First Lady and her representative “worked directly with Russian and Ukrainian leadership to define the terms of the localized ceasefire,” the statement added. “The First Lady initiated discussions with both nations and aligned the parties on the agreement’s objectives, technical procedures, timing, processes, and terms, in her formal role as Exclusive Intermediary.”

After several rounds of negotiations, the ceasefire ultimately began at 3 a.m. Kyiv time on Oct. 27 and ended late on Nov. 1, said Ukrainian human rights ombudsman Dmytro Lubinets, who called it the longest such arrangement since Russia launched its full-scale invasion in February 2022. Lubinets and David Arakhamia, head of Zelensky’s parliamentary faction, were the Ukrainian negotiators. After the ceasefire ended, both men praised the operation and Melania Trump held a press conference at the White House to announce the results.

How The Ceasefire Worked

The operation unfolded in several stages, Lubinets said, according to Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL). 

“After the cease-fire took effect, Russian forces began demining roads leading to Oleshky, a process that continued through Oct. 29,” the publication stated. “Humanitarian supplies, including food, medicine, drinking water, and specialized hospital equipment, were then delivered.”

Lubinets and his Russian counterpart, Yana Lantratova, accompanied by their teams and journalists from Ukraine, the U.S., and Russia, “subsequently entered the occupied city to oversee the distribution of aid and assist residents seeking evacuation,” the outlet added. “Residents were given three options: remain in Oleshky and receive humanitarian assistance, leave for Ukrainian-controlled territory, or travel to Russia or territory under Russian control.”

During this effort, the Ukrainian delegation “experimented with drone surveillance and direct communication between Ukrainian and Russian military representatives to monitor compliance,” the news outlet noted. “Arakhamia said the experience had helped demonstrate how localized cease-fires could be verified rather than relying solely on competing military intelligence claims.”

“All people who wanted to be evacuated from Oleshky to Ukraine are now in Ukraine,” Lubinets said, adding that he had “personally overseen the evacuation process and spoken with residents to establish whether their decisions were voluntary.”

Lantratova concurred that the ceasefire went off as planned in terms of the humanitarian goals.

“I can state that there were no incidents or violations of the ceasefire,” she said, according to Russian media. “Everything went exactly as planned.”

Ukraine Soon Expressed Regret

As noted earlier in this story, Ukrainian officials began to express concerns about the military results of the ceasefire about a week after it ended.

Russia brought more than 1,000 troops into the area under the cover of the ceasefire, an officer with the unit defending the Ukrainian side of the Dnipro claimed on Nov. 6. 

“Russian forces have massed in positions from which they had been driven out over the past six months, effectively moving about 20 kilometers closer to the line of contact,” Yaroslav Moroz, head of the Unmanned Systems Department of the 34th Separate Marine Brigade of the Ukrainian Navy, told RFE/RL. “Prior to the ceasefire, the situation on the left bank of the Kherson region was different: the Armed Forces of Ukraine had expanded their engagement zone, pushed the enemy back, and severed their logistics.”

“There are no massive assault operations at the moment. However, we are prepared for them,” Moroz added. “Russian forces have brought a large quantity of equipment and ammunition into the Oleshky hospital, knowing that the Armed Forces of Ukraine would not attack the building, as local residents are receiving medical treatment there.”

Two days later, Zelensky complained about the Russian advances in the region.

“Unfortunately, under the cover of a humanitarian operation in Oleshky, the Russian army carried out a major rotation of personnel and equipment on the left bank,” the Ukrainian leader stated on X. “Additional occupation forces were brought into Oleshky and the surrounding community. The command of the Armed Forces of Ukraine must present proposals for additional protection of lives in Kherson from Russian terror.”

Ukrainian officials took the calculated risk that making a deal with Russia would benefit a large number of people caught in the middle of a brutal conflict. After what Ukrainians claimed transpired following the ceasefire, the future of such endeavors is unclear.

Contact the author: howard@twz.com

Starved and exhausted residents of Oleshky arrive in Ukraine after months of isolation, but some stay behind.

Starved and exhausted residents of the Russian-occupied Ukrainian town of Oleshky have crossed into Ukraine in a major evacuation operation of civilians, under the first humanitarian truce of its kind in more than four years of Moscow’s war.

The six-day ceasefire covering the town was reached with mediation efforts by US First Lady Melania Trump and help from Pope Leo XIV. It is the longest local pause in fighting since Russia’s full-scale invasion of its neighbour in 2022.

“Ukrainian citizens from Oleshky have crossed the Ukrainian border in the Chernihiv region. All of them will receive the assistance they need,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy wrote on X, thanking the United States and the first lady for mediating.

“Further steps toward de-escalation and real progress toward peace are also needed,” he added.

Evacuees wrapped in blue and yellow Ukrainian flags stepped off buses at the Ukrainian-Belarusian border and reunited with family members.

Ukrainian officials met the evacuees with posters reading “You’re not alone” and “We embrace with our hearts”, while residents from nearby villages lined the highway waving flags and flashlights to greet them.

Forced to eat grass

Supply routes to Oleshky had been disrupted by fighting and drones. According to some residents, food deliveries were stopped in May, pushing hundreds of people into starvation.

One evacuee, an elderly man in a wheelchair, told the Reuters news agency that he had lost 20kg (44lbs) over the past year, becoming so weak he required hospital treatment.

Another evacuee, Svitlana Yermakova, told Reuters they had to eat grass to survive.

“We chopped grass and squash… just to hold on,” she said, adding that she risked riding by bicycle through minefields to a nearby village to get food for herself and her dog.

To reach Ukrainian-held territory, Oleshky residents had to take a complicated route to leave the devastated town just a few kilometres from the front line.

They first crossed Crimea by bus to the Russian town of Anapa before flying to Belarus, from where they crossed into Ukraine.

Ambulances lined the street, and several large military tents were erected, where hot meals, tea and medical aid were provided.

Russian and Ukrainian officials say the ceasefire in Oleshky has held since Tuesday, allowing them to de-mine the roads and bring food, medicines and other supplies into the town again.

The truce is due to end on Sunday evening.

Some stay behind

Some residents have decided to remain in Oleshky, despite the ongoing lack of gas, electricity and running water.

Russian Human Rights Commissioner Yana Lantratova said living conditions in the occupied Oleshky remained difficult, pledging she would continue to work with her Ukrainian counterpart, Dmytro Lubinets, to help those who stayed.

“The mission has come to an end,” she said on Telegram. “We have agreed to carry out regular humanitarian missions, which is a very important step.”

Oleshky had a pre-war population of about 24,000, which plunged to an estimated 1,700 before the evacuation.

Ukrainian officials have not said exactly how many residents were evacuated or how many remained.

Despite the ceasefire in Oleshky, fighting rages on in other parts of the front, with Russia and Ukraine keeping up drone attacks against each other.

“As of now, Ukrainian citizens from Oleshky have crossed the Ukrainian border in the Chernihiv region,” Zelensky said in a post on X.

“All of them will receive the assistance they need. It is important that government agencies and all the regional and local authorities involved work effectively and help our people adapt.”

The evacuees were taken via Russia and Belarus before being driven across Ukraine’s northern border on Saturday.

The oldest evacuee was 94 years old, while the youngest was one, according to Dmytro Lubinets, Ukraine’s human rights ombudsman.

One evacuee, Liubov, told the Reuters news agency: “Until we got on the buses, we were afraid of everything, we were so worried and nervous. Before that, we spent nights without sleeping, wondering how it would go, what would happen. But everything went well.”

Another said they had lost 20 kg in the last year, adding: “My strength left me.”

A humanitarian ceasefire took effect across the frontline region of Kherson on Tuesday, providing the first few days of peace in the area in four years, following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

Conditions had become so desperate in Oleshky that not only was getting supplies into the city extremely difficult, but escape was highly dangerous because the routes out had been mined and subject to drone attack.

Bridges across the nearby River Dnipro have been destroyed and sources say the riverbank has been mined and is dangerous.

One resident who fled the city three weeks earlier told the BBC he had walked through 24km (15 miles) of minefields to get to safety.

The localised ceasefire, secured by US First Lady Melania Trump, will allow evacuations and aid deliveries to Oleshky.

Russia has suspended strikes on the Ukrainian province of Kherson as a localised ceasefire takes effect ahead of a humanitarian mission led by the United States’ First Lady Melania Trump.

The pause in fighting started at 01:00 GMT on Tuesday, according to the Russian Defence Ministry, to allow for an aid mission into the Russian-occupied town of Oleshky in southern Kherson later this week.

The mission will enable aid deliveries and allow evacuations from the front-line town, which is suffering acute shortages of food, medicine and other basic supplies.

The agreement was announced on October ‌23 and brokered by US First Lady Melania Trump, with the additional involvement of Pope Leo, as Washington seeks to revive peace talks between Moscow and Kyiv after more than four and a half years of fighting.

Up to 2,000 people remain in Oleshky. They have been unable to leave because of explosive mines and drone attacks in the area, according to the United Nations.

The town, which had a pre-war population of 24,000 people, lies on the eastern bank of the Dnipro River in the partially occupied Kherson region, opposite Kherson city, which is held by Ukrainian forces. Russian troops seized Oleshky during the first ⁠days of their February 2022 invasion and have controlled it ever since.

Oleshky has suffered extensive war damage and was hit hard by flooding after the destruction of the nearby Kakhovka Dam in 2023.

The localised ceasefire is due to last through Saturday, or longer, amid deep mistrust between Russia and Ukraine that has thwarted previous attempts at ceasefires.

Negotiators involved in the aid mission said doctors, medicines, food supplies and water would be taken to Oleshky before evacuation corridors are opened.

WASHINGTON — First Lady Melania Trump has brokered an upcoming ceasefire between Russia and Ukraine in the war-ravaged Ukrainian city of Oleshky to allow for humanitarian aid and the evacuation of civilians, the White House announced on Friday.

The localized ceasefire is set to begin Thursday, with the American first lady saying in a news release that the situation there is “on the brink of disaster.”

The White House said Trump had initiated the discussions and that she and a representative worked directly with Russian and Ukrainian leadership to define the terms of the ceasefire.

Ukraine’s lead negotiator for the agreement thanked Trump for her involvement and said the deal would be “extremely challenging to implement.”

“Under our agreement: first a ceasefire will be put in place; second, humanitarian aid will be delivered to Oleshky; and third, civilians will be allowed to move freely out of Oleshky,” Dmytro Lubinets, Ukraine’s human rights ombudsman, said in a video message posted online. “The operation will be carried out gradually and is extremely challenging to implement. I will therefore keep Ukrainian society informed and share the results of the operation.”

Russia’s chief of the general staff, Gen. Valery Gerasimov, said Russian forces “will cease fire on the Kherson axis” starting at 4 a.m. TuesdayMoscow time “in connection with the humanitarian operation near Oleshky.” The Russian forces will also carry out “engineering reconnaissance” and ensure “safe movement of the humanitarian convoy” into the city, Gerasimov said.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov also said Moscow was grateful to the first lady and that effort was discussed during the latest call between Russian President Vladimir Putin and President Trump, he said.

Peskov said “those who want to leave it would be able to do so.” He would not say whether those who evacuate will be taken to Russia or Ukraine-held territory. He also demurred when asked how long the evacuation will last, saying only it would likely take several days.

Saving children is first lady’s focus, president says

Melania Trump has made helping children in conflict one of her signature issues and hosted a U.N. Security Council meeting on the issue earlier this year. She has written Putin to work on efforts to reunite families with children who have been displaced by the war.

“What she wants to do is save children, and that’s her focus,” the president said of the first lady during a question-and-answer exchange with journalists in Washington.

Tensions between Washington and Kyiv are rising

The development comes as tensions have increased to new highs between the Trump administration and Ukraine’s government. Kyiv has faced restrictions on the satellite internet system that it relies on to knock down Russian attacks, with Trump and other top U.S. officials sending mixed messages about who was responsible for throttling the Elon Musk-made Starshield system.

Trump also has recently waived new Russian sanctions, reached an agreement with Russia to import diesel and pushed Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to make a deal to end the war that began in February 2022. In renewed efforts to revive the peace process, Trump envoy Steve Witkoff traveled to Norway this week for talks with Zelensky before meeting with Putin in St. Petersburg, Russia.

Zelensky did not mention the ceasefire in Oleshky during a remote appearance at the Hudson Institute, a Washington think tank. He did note that American Patriot missile interceptors were still on hold and Starshield and Starlink speed limits were still in place.

He also spoke of the importance of the United States to renewed diplomatic efforts to end the war, including a possible joint meeting with Trump and Putin.

Dire situation in Oleshky

Food and medical supplies have been scarce for months in Oleshky, which sits on the Dnipro River that separates Ukrainian forces from the city’s Russian occupiers. There is no electricity, heat or running water. Roads leading from town are mined and dotted with burned-out cars. Drones buzz overhead.

Once a city of about 24,000 residents, Oleshky was captured by Moscow’s forces on the first day of their full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. Its buildings were shelled and burned, and its infrastructure damaged. In June 2023, floodwaters inundated the city after the Kakhovka Dam collapsed from an explosion that an Associated Press investigation found was likely caused by the Russian military. Hundreds of residents were killed.

Those left in the city along Ukraine’s southeastern front face death from hunger or disease as another harsh winter looms. Ukraine has appealed repeatedly for a local ceasefire to organize evacuations. Russia, as the occupying power, is obligated by international law to ensure civilians under its control have what they need to survive.

Melania Trump details the mission

Melania Trump said in the White House news release that civilian leaders from Ukraine and Russia will visit Oleshky residents to determine the level of assistance they require.

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

Melania Trump also said “an impartial American media organization” will accompany and document Russian and Ukrainian teams on the ground throughout the process.

“This will play a significant role in ensuring that the wishes of each family are faithfully respected,” she said.

The statement did not identify the media organization.

Finley writes for the Associated Press. AP writers Seung Min Kim and Konstantin Toropin in Washington; Volodymyr Yurchuk in Kyiv, Ukraine, and Dasha Litvinova in Tallinn, Estonia, contributed to this report.

No confirmation from Russia or Ukraine as White House says ‘localised’ ceasefire to take effect in Russian-occupied Oleshky.

The White House has said First Lady Melania Trump has “secured a ceasefire” between Russia and Ukraine in the southern Ukrainian city of Oleshky.

Neither Russia nor Ukraine immediately confirmed the statement on Friday, which comes as the administration of US President Donald Trump has renewed diplomacy aimed at ending the war.

The approach has included upping pressure on Ukraine and handing several recent concessions to Russia.

“The situation in Oleshky is dire. Oleshky is a front-line war city on the brink of disaster,” Melania Trump said in a statement released by the White House.

“The people of Oleshky have limited electricity, live amid mined roads, and endure regular military attacks. It was abundantly clear that without my intervention, the possibility to bring humanitarian aid into the city and to evacuate the elderly would be impossible,” she said.

The First Lady added that her representatives worked directly with “Russian and Ukrainian leadership to define the terms of the localized ceasefire” and that civilian leaders from both countries will work together to grant humanitarian access to civilians in the city.

This is a developing story.