Oleshky Ceasefire Begins as Russia Hits Kyiv Overnight
The truce around the Dnipro city took effect Tuesday, and the same night Russian missiles hit Kyiv's Southern Bridge and its metro.
The ceasefire in Oleshky began on Tuesday, October 27. Russia’s Defense Ministry announced on Telegram that from 4 a.m. Moscow time, which is 2 a.m. in Serbia, it had stopped firing in the direction of Kherson. Australia’s public broadcaster ABC reports that the truce started at 3 a.m. local time, the same moment. Attacks continued elsewhere all the same, above all in Kyiv.
As we reported earlier, Moscow and Kyiv agreed to a ceasefire in the city. Now it has actually taken effect.
What is the Oleshky ceasefire meant to achieve?
The truce is supposed to allow aid to be brought in and residents to be taken out of a city short on food and medicine. According to American and Ukrainian estimates, about 2,000 people remain in the city, up to 50 of them children. Before the 2022 invasion it had about 24,000 residents.
Oleshky lies on the left bank of the Dnipro, across from Kherson, which Ukrainian forces hold. Russian troops have controlled the city since the first days of the invasion in February 2022. It was also badly hit by the flooding after the Kakhovka dam was destroyed in 2023.
The United States brokered the ceasefire. Ukraine’s human rights commissioner and head of its negotiating team, Dmytro Lubinets, confirmed in a Facebook post that Kyiv is keeping to the agreement:
“As head of the Ukrainian negotiating team, I confirm that the Ukrainian side is honoring its obligations.”
According to him, the deal was reached with the help of US First Lady Melania Trump and Russia’s human rights commissioner Yana Lantratova. When she announced the truce on Friday, Melania Trump said residents would receive help:
“Residents who wish to evacuate will receive coordinated support and transportation to the destination of their choice.”
She added: “I expect that some will want to go to Russia and some to Ukraine.”
What do we still not know about the ceasefire?
Sources disagree on the date. A White House statement from October 23 gave October 29 as the start, while a Ukrainian official spoke of October 27, when the truce did begin. Neither side has said how long it will last, who will monitor it, or what exactly the humanitarian operation covers.
What else was happening in Kyiv and elsewhere?
A Russian missile attack on Kyiv that began Monday evening killed at least one person and injured 15, among them students in a dormitory. On Tuesday the Southern Bridge and metro infrastructure were hit, and traffic was suspended. Ukraine’s air force issued nearly a dozen warnings of ballistic missiles heading for the capital in the morning. Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko said the strike hit the Southern Bridge, one of the city’s main bridges, and damaged metro infrastructure.
There were also dead and wounded in Kharkiv and Pavlohrad. In Russia’s Bryansk region a drone killed one man and injured six people, and in the part of Zaporizhzhia region under Russian control a drone hit a bus: one person died and 30 were injured. Russia’s Defense Ministry claims it targeted transport infrastructure in Kyiv and a logistics center in Kharkiv region. Both sides deny deliberately targeting civilians.
Talks continue alongside the fighting. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Friday that negotiators from Ukraine, Russia and the US had agreed to meet in Abu Dhabi in the first half of November, at a technical level.
