Aid convoy enters besieged Ukrainian town Oleshky

An ‌aid convoy has entered the Russian-held town of Oleshky, in Ukraine’s southern Kherson region, after weeks of efforts to organise a relief operation ⁠for residents.

The Russian newspaper Izvestia said on Friday that the aid convoy carried food ⁠and medical supplies as the six-day United States-brokered localised ceasefire between Russia and Ukraine stretched into its third day. However, Moscow stressed that the truce in Oleshky could not be linked to a broader ceasefire.

Ukraine Human Rights Commissioner Dmytro Lubinets and Russian ⁠counterpart Yana Lantratova met in Oleshky overnight, Russian state TV channel Vesti reported.

Lantratova said 25 buses with at least 750 seats stood ready to evacuate those seeking to leave the city, which was seized by Russian forces soon after Moscow’s February 2022 invasion of Ukraine. Evacuations will continue until 2pm local time (12:00 GMT).

Lubinets said in a statement that remaining residents would be able ⁠to leave ⁠safely ⁠and underscored the importance of maintaining the ‌six-day US-brokered ceasefire.

Russia and Ukraine on Thursday announced that demining operations had been completed around Oleshky and that the operation to deliver aid to residents and let a number of them leave was ready to begin. Lantratova added that two people were ⁠killed in the demining effort in the city.

The White House insists that US First Lady Melania Trump mediated the ceasefire in Oleshky, which she said was “on the brink of disaster”, with food and medical supplies running perilously low for the up to 2,000 people still there.

She began talks after hearing about the humanitarian situation in the city at one of her events during the United Nations General Assembly session in September, the White House said. Once home to about 24,000 people, Oleshky has no electricity, heat or running water as it approaches another harsh winter.

But the Vatican has offered its own narrative, suggesting that the pope was responsible for helping the pause in fighting through phone calls with Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

Moscow and Kyiv have observed the truce in and around the devastated city since Tuesday but remain otherwise locked in the war that began more than four years ago.

The situation ⁠in Oleshky is an ‌isolated case that should not be extrapolated to the broader ⁠peaceful settlement process ⁠in Ukraine, Kremlin spokesman ⁠Dmitry Peskov said ⁠on ⁠Friday on Russian state TV.

Russia struck an industrial facility near Kremenchuk ⁠while hitting the Ukrainian capital and Kharkiv, the second ⁠biggest city, Ukrainian officials said on the Telegram messaging app.

Moscow said it hit energy infrastructure in and around Kyiv, as well as in the Dnipropetrovsk region, port facilities in the Odesa region and cargo vessels it said were ‌used ‌by the military.

The Russian capital’s mayor, Sergei Sobyanin, said on Telegram that Russian authorities downed most of the more than 850 drones headed overnight towards Moscow.