Aid convoy due in Oleshky as truce reaches 54 hours

A humanitarian aid mission was scheduled to enter Oleshky on Friday after a localized ceasefire between Russia and Ukraine held for 54 hours without reported violations, Ukrainian ombudsman Dmytro Lubinets said Thursday. Lubinets said deliveries were due to begin the following day, and both he and his Russian counterpart, Yana Lantratova, said the agreement was being observed. "The parties are fully adhering to the agreements, and no violations of the ceasefire have been reported," Lubinets said. The White House said U.S. first lady Melania Trump played a role in brokering the temporary truce so food and medical supplies could reach about 2,000 people in Oleshky; Pope Leo XIV also pressed for a pause in fighting.

Russian engineers were demining roads in and around Oleshky, Lantri said, to prepare a safe passage for the convoy. "Both sides are fully honoring their commitments, and no violations have been recorded," she said. "This allows military personnel to continue clearing roads of mines and to prepare a safe passage for the humanitarian convoy." Local residents will be able to evacuate into either Russia or Ukraine, though officials did not describe how that would work. Lubinets arrived in Belarus and was to travel to Oleshky from there; Lantratova said she and her team were en route to the city for the delivery, part of an operation she said was five months in the making.

The planned six-day truce covers Russian-occupied Oleshky, and the pause has brought stillness to nearby Kherson, a Ukrainian-held city. Nataliia Myronenko, 42, who runs a coffee kiosk there, said customers had returned at lunchtime and in the evening. "Now, during the quiet, we have people at lunchtime and in the evening, which we didn't have under the attacks," she said. "For a while, people would race down this street because they were afraid to stop." She described the quiet as "a breath of freedom, when you don't look at the sky," and added, "It's such a privilege and a joy, but we understand it will end soon."

Fighting continued elsewhere in Ukraine. A jet-powered Russian drone struck two passenger trains stopped at a station in Dnipro, killing at least 14 people and injuring 10 others, officials said. A Russian cruise missile killed two 15-year-old girls in Chernihiv, and two more civilians died when a Russian drone hit an apartment block in Kremenchuk, authorities said.

Russia's Defense Ministry said air defenses downed 1,214 Ukrainian drones overnight in what it described as one of the largest attacks launched by Kyiv. Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said about half of those drones were heading toward the capital.

Moscow and Kyiv have observed the truce in and around Oleshky since Tuesday, even as the wider war continues more than 4 1/2 years after Russia's full-scale invasion. Previous attempts at ceasefires either failed to materialize or collapsed quickly. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov was scheduled to travel to Atlanta, Georgia, for a G20 ministerial meeting starting Friday, Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova said.