Ukraine and Russia discuss monthly aid missions to occupied Oleshky

Ukraine’s human rights commissioner, Dmytro Lubinets, said on 2 November that he had agreed with the Russian side to make aid deliveries systematic. Discussions were continuing on how to deliver supplies at least once a month, he told Interfax-Ukraine.

Russia’s commissioner, Yana Lantratova, told Russian news outlet RBC that she and Lubinets had asked US first lady Melania Trump to help organise the missions. It remains unclear whether Trump has agreed to a role in future deliveries, or when and how the next mission would take place.

The announcement follows an aid operation and evacuation during a local ceasefire that has since ended. Lubinets said the mission brought food, water, medicines and fuel for generators to people who stayed in Oleshky, as well as equipment for the city’s hospital.

The White House credited Trump with helping broker the ceasefire. Pope Leo XIV had also pressed Russia and Ukraine to allow aid deliveries and evacuations, according to the Associated Press, which saw evacuees arrive at the Ukrainian-Belarusian border on 31 October.

The number who left is uncertain. Lantratova said significantly fewer than 750 people departed Oleshky and not everyone was counted; she also said people from other places joined the convoy along the way. Trump said the mission enabled nearly 800 people to be evacuated, but it is unclear whether her figure covers the same group.

Residents have faced months of shortages, while mines and drones have made movement dangerous. One evacuee, Ivan Yevhenovych, told AP: “Since spring, there hasn’t really been any staple food left. People had a little bit of their own reserves.”