Russia and Ukraine said on Thursday that demining of the routes for the humanitarian mission in Oleshky, in southern Ukraine, had been completed and that an operation to bring aid into the Russian-held town and allow residents to leave was ready to begin.
Source: Reuters
"Demining operations of routes have been completed for the humanitarian mission in Oleshky," the two sides said in virtually identical statements issued by Yana Lantratova, Russia's human rights commissioner, and Dmytro Lubinets, her Ukrainian counterpart. "The humanitarian convoy is ready for departure."
The convoy will head for the district hospital, the statements said, and residents wishing to leave will be permitted to go within a specific time frame with all safety measures ensured. Aid packages will then be distributed.
From announcement to the delivery point
Thursday's milestone follows the earlier developments in this operation: a localised ceasefire agreement announced on October 23, brokered by US First Lady Melania Trump with the additional involvement of Pope Leo, which took effect around Oleshky on October 27, was later expanded across the Kherson region for aid convoys, and held through its first 30 hours with no violations reported by either side.
Lubinets said the truce had held for 54 hours as of Thursday and is set to run until Sunday, November 1. Davyd Arakhamia, who heads the ruling Servant of the People party's parliamentary faction, said delegations from Ukraine, the United States and Russia had reached the point from which aid would be delivered, and President Vladimir Putin said aid distribution would begin between Thursday and Friday, thanking Melania Trump for her support. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said a plane had been chartered for residents who wished to be evacuated.
Source: Pollar News / DW reporting
Under a document published by Ukraine's ombudsman office, residents who want to leave Oleshky would travel to the airport in Anapa, Russia, and from there a Russian Defence Ministry transport aircraft would fly them to Homel in Belarus.
Oleshky, on the Dnipro River opposite Ukrainian-held Kherson city, has been under Russian control since 2022 and faces acute shortages of food and medicine. The truce is local only: fighting continued elsewhere in Ukraine on Thursday even as the Oleshky pause held into its third day, according to The Guardian's Ukraine war briefing.
Source: The Guardian (Ukraine war briefing)
Ukrainian officials expect the aid delivery to take place on Friday, October 30. Whether the convoy reaches the town and evacuations actually move will be the real test of a truce both sides have so far kept.