The White House says Melania Trump secured a ceasefire in the Ukrainian city of Oleshky, and Moscow has confirmed the arrangement, according to Sky TG24. The truce is meant to let humanitarian aid into the city and allow civilians to leave through a safe corridor. Russia's defence ministry said the pause in fighting would take effect at 4am on 27 October, Interfax reported.
According to the White House, both Russia and Ukraine agreed to temporarily halt all military activity in Oleshky. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said he could not say precisely how many days the evacuation would take, but stressed it would "certainly take several days," as reported by Sky TG24.
Why it matters
Oleshky lies in Russian-held territory, which makes an agreed halt to fighting there unusual. The arrangement is narrow — a single city, a limited window, a humanitarian purpose — but it puts Russian and Ukrainian signatures, in effect, on the same local commitment. It also gives the American first lady a direct role in a war that has resisted diplomatic resolution for years. Whether the model can be repeated elsewhere is the open question.
Conflicting dates and a Ukrainian confirmation
Accounts of the start date have not been uniform. Moscow's defence ministry put the beginning at 4am on 27 October. Ukraine's human rights commissioner, Dmytro Lubinets, said the humanitarian operation and ceasefire would take place on 29 October, according to Ukrainska Pravda, which cited a video he posted on Telegram. Lubinets described three elements of the deal: a guaranteed ceasefire, delivery of humanitarian aid to Oleshky, and free movement for civilians leaving the city. He thanked Melania Trump and her team for their efforts.
The discrepancy in dates was not immediately explained in the reporting. Peskov's remark that the evacuation would take several days suggests the operation may span more than one day rather than begin on two different ones.
Airports shut in Moscow as drones strike
The diplomatic news came alongside continued fighting. Moscow's international airports were closed to traffic because of an air alert triggered by Ukrainian drone attacks, and passengers were evacuated at Sheremetyevo, Sky TG24 reported. Russia, for the first time, did not close the door to a trilateral summit involving Vladimir Putin, Donald Trump and Volodymyr Zelensky on Ukraine.
Zelensky, writing on X, said a drone attack on a civilian vessel off Romania was "another horrible tragedy of this war." He said one Ukrainian crew member was killed and three others were still missing, and thanked Romanian rescue services for saving six crew members. The strike, he said, shows the danger the war poses to maritime navigation.
Starlink limits and stalled interceptors
In the same social media posts, Zelensky said speed restrictions on Starlink and Starshield remain in place and have not been lifted, and that deliveries of interceptors meant to defend against Russian ballistic missiles are still behind schedule. He said the interceptors had already been agreed but were not arriving, calling it a real problem because Russian attacks come almost daily. He added that front-line operations had been relatively successful despite the restrictions, and that the line was holding.
Zelensky also said he and his team had spoken with Trump's envoys, Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, about the results of meetings in Oslo and St Petersburg and about advancing diplomacy in November. He said there is an agreement to hold a trilateral meeting at team level between Ukraine, America and Russia in the first half of November, and that Kyiv is ready to meet any day, including immediately. He said a trilateral meeting had also been expected in October but did not happen because the Russians found another reason not to attend. He argued that technical talks need to give way to a leaders' meeting, since key questions can only be settled at that level.
A shortlist in Brussels and a papal envoy
Separately, the Daily Telegraph reported, citing diplomatic sources, that Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni is on a five-name shortlist from which the EU must choose a mediator with Putin for peace talks. The others named in the Brussels shortlist were Finnish President Alexander Stubb, Czech President Petr Pavel, Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen and Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre.
RaiNews also reported that the Pope's prefect, Luis de San Martín, will travel to Ukraine next week.
Prisoners return
Zelensky announced that 270 prisoners of war returned to Ukraine from Russia, among them military personnel and nine civilians. Lubinets said 86 of them had been convicted by Russian courts. Most had been held in Russia since 2022, including defenders of Mariupol and members of the Azov brigade.
What to watch: whether the Oleshky truce holds past its first days, and whether the team-level trilateral meeting materialises in early November.
