The October 23 agreement envisages humanitarian deliveries and repatriation efforts across Kherson communities after the immediate Oleshky mission, with Melania Trump helping coordinate.
Russia and Ukraine have agreed to arrange humanitarian aid deliveries and repatriation efforts across Kherson-region communities after the immediate Oleshky mission, Fox News said in its October 28 account of the signed agreement. Those operations would take place as needed, but at least monthly, with assistance and coordination from US First Lady Melania Trump. Repatriation means return to a home country.
Road mine-clearing has begun for the Oleshky evacuation, and organizers are collecting residents’ registration and medical details, Save Ukraine Foundation lawyer Myroslava Kharchenko said in an interview published by DW on October 28. She could not confirm that residents had begun leaving.
Russian forces seized Oleshky in February 2022. The frontline city lies across the Dnipro from Ukrainian-held Kherson. Around 2,000 people remain, many elderly, compared with roughly 24,000 before the invasion. Residents and officials have described severe food and medicine shortages, largely absent running water, electricity, gas and central heating, and mined roads that residents risk to obtain supplies.
Kharchenko said road mine-clearing began at around 08:00 on October 27. That marks a step beyond the preparations described in Reuters’ October 27 account, which said clearing roads for humanitarian corridors could take several days.
Organizers are sharing registration lists and application forms through closed local chat groups, Kharchenko said. They are contacting people who previously requested evacuation to check birth dates and current addresses. Because communications are unreliable, they are also asking for contact details for nearby relatives or neighbors.
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The information being collected includes residents’ health conditions. Some people awaiting evacuation are ill, have limited mobility or are recovering from injuries, including blast and mine wounds. Kharchenko said she expected organizers to provide medical assistance for those who need it.
The foundation said it had rescued at least 300 civilians from Oleshky over the preceding six months. Separately, Kharchenko estimated that around 500 people might eventually leave through the planned evacuation. She said residents were afraid and suspicious after previous attempts to establish a humanitarian corridor, and some might not leave during the initial phase.
That estimate is not a count of completed departures: Kharchenko could not confirm that evacuations had begun or give a start date. She said route details were being kept confidential for security reasons. Roads into Oleshky need to be cleared of mines, as do many streets within the city, before residents can travel safely.
Fox said Oleshky’s crisis was raised at an event Melania Trump hosted in September 2026. Officials signed the humanitarian agreement in Belarus on October 23. Fox said signature pages it obtained named Dmytro Lubinets and Tatyana Moskalkova, whom it identified as Ukraine’s and Russia’s human rights commissioners.
The accounts identify Russia’s commissioner differently. In an October 23 statement carried by Interfax-Ukraine, Lubinets said he led Ukraine’s negotiations and named Yana Lantratova as Russia’s human rights commissioner and representative.
The immediate mission is intended to bring food, clean water, medicine and doctors into Oleshky and provide safe passage for residents who choose to leave. Lubinets separately confirmed that the agreement provides for aid delivery and civilians’ free movement out of the city.
Melania Trump’s senior adviser, Marc Beckman, said civilians from both countries would lead the mission, keeping their troops apart during deliveries and evacuations. He said he and Trump worked through maps, roads and aerial imagery with both sides, including which military equipment could enter and how residents would be evacuated.
The local ceasefire began on October 27 at 03:00 Ukrainian time, or 04:00 Moscow time, two days earlier than originally planned. It is scheduled to last until November 1. Its scope was expanded beyond Oleshky to allow humanitarian convoys through the surrounding Kherson region; fighting elsewhere in Ukraine continues.
Russia and Ukraine both said they were observing the ceasefire on October 27. Lubinets said neither side had reported a violation by 17:30 that day.
Fox said the immediate mission was expected to last about a week, with a goal of finishing in early November. Beckman said Russia and Ukraine could negotiate an extension if more time were needed, with Melania Trump participating. The agreed recurring Kherson operations would follow the Oleshky mission.
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Davyd Arakhamia said on October 27 that the pause was US-mediated and covered the Russian-occupied town, with November 1 as its planned end.
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