By Dan Peleschuk
KYIV, Oct 30 (Reuters) – Desperate residents of a Russian-held town in southern Ukraine were due to receive food and medical supplies on Friday and be allowed to leave if they wish, officials from the two warring sides said.
The relief operation for the town of Oleshky was made possible by a ceasefire brokered by US first lady Melania Trump. It is the most striking example of cooperation between the two sides, who have been at war for four years and eight months in the deadliest conflict in Europe since World War Two, and have not stopped fighting elsewhere.
On Thursday, a Russian drone strike killed at least 14 people on a crowded rail platform in the Ukrainian city of Dnipro, local officials, and Moscow said on Friday that it had hit energy infrastructure in and around Kyiv and the Dnipro region, port facilities in the Odesa region and cargo vessels that it said were used by the military.
In Oleshky, Russian human rights commissioner Yana Lantratova and her Ukrainian counterpart Dmytro Lubinets appeared side-by-side on Friday to update reporters on the mission.
“The aid was assembled based on the specific needs reported to us; it includes food, hygiene products, essential medical supplies, fuel – everything the people require,” Lantratova said.
Lubinets said everyone in need of assistance would get it, including those who wished to leave.
“We have reached an agreement to assist citizens who wish to travel to Ukraine – they will be provided with the opportunity to do so. Likewise, assistance will be available to those who wish to travel to the Russian Federation,” he said.
Oleshky, on the Dnipro River opposite the city of Kherson, was seized by Russian troops during the first days of their full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
It has suffered extensive damage and was badly flooded after the destruction of the huge upriver Kakhovka dam in 2023.
Residents have given harrowing accounts of risking their lives travelling along mine-strewn roads – one known as the “road of death” – just to get food and water. Some say they have survived on a cup of rice or buckwheat a day, sometimes with a tomato, cucumber or wild plants added.
A local ceasefire came into force in Oleshky and the Kherson region early on Tuesday and has held for more than three days.
“This is the first time since 2022 that a ceasefire has been established across such an extensive stretch of the front line and has been maintained for such a significant duration,” Lubinets said.
The arrival of the aid convoy was preceded by demining operations this week in which Lantratova said a sapper and one other person were killed.
She said 25 buses were on hand to evacuate people, with special provision for those who are bedridden, and 50 medical personnel were present. There was even a bus with pet cages for those who wished to take their animals with them.
TWO SIDES STILL FAR APART ON HOW TO END THE WAR
The joint relief operation offers hope that the two sides are capable of working together, despite the ferocity of the war, in which both sides have intensified long-range air strikes while battlefield front lines remain largely static.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said there was a “high degree of coordination” between Lantratova and Lubinets.
US-mediated peace talks are due to resume next month in Abu Dhabi for the first time since February, as US President Donald Trump seeks to end a conflict he once said he could solve in a day.
Russia still hopes that Trump can pressure Kyiv into accepting a deal that meets many of Moscow’s conditions, such as full Russian control of Ukraine’s Donbas region and a bar on Ukraine joining NATO.
Kyiv wants to ensure that US intelligence-sharing continues, along with full access to Elon Musk’s recently disrupted battlefield communications system, Starshield, and that European-bought US military hardware, including Patriot interceptor missiles, continues to flow.
(Reporting by Dan Peleschuk in Kyiv, Jekaterīna Golubkova in Tokyo and Moscow bureau; writing by Mark Trevelyan; Editing by Kevin Liffey)
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