Oleshky Ceasefire Starts Tuesday as Russia Accuses Ukraine of Strikes Before Truce

A local ceasefire in the Russian-occupied Ukrainian town of Oleshky is due to begin on Tuesday, 27 October, allowing food and medicine to reach around 2,000 trapped residents and opening the way for civilian evacuations. Both militaries have said they will halt fire from 4am local time, or 0100 GMT, with the plan including clearing mines from roads, delivering supplies and moving people out through humanitarian corridors.
But the truce began under a cloud on Monday, when Russia's Defence Ministry accused Ukraine of striking Oleshky 18 times with artillery and carrying out more than 120 drone attacks on the town and its surrounding roads in the week since 19 October. Moscow said the attacks had blocked food and medicine deliveries and stopped residents leaving. Reuters, which reported the statement, said it could not independently verify the claim, and there was no immediate response from Ukraine, which has previously accused Russia of refusing to let aid in or people out.
Oleshky sits on the occupied bank of the Dnipro River, across from Ukrainian-held Kherson, and has been under Russian control since the first days of the February 2022 invasion. Its population has fallen from around 24,000 before the war to an estimated 1,700 to 2,000 people, most of them elderly, facing severe shortages of food, water and medicine. The ceasefire was brokered with the involvement of US First Lady Melania Trump, and fresh Ukraine-Russia-US talks are expected in the first half of November.
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