Ukraine and Russia announced a localized truce on Friday in the Russian-occupied town of Oleshky, mediated through US First Lady Melania Trump, while Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy confirmed that peace negotiators will convene for new talks next month.
Both parties confirmed that the ceasefire will take effect on October 27 to allow civilian evacuations and humanitarian aid deliveries through designated corridors.
Zelenskiy stated that negotiators from Ukraine and Russia, as well as the United States agreed to hold technical-level talks in Abu Dhabi during early November as part of a US effort to broker an end to the four-and-a-half-year conflict.
A US official later stated that the three nations might hold their next round of negotiations in Switzerland or Abu Dhabi within a few weeks.
Zelenskiy expressed his hope that the leaders of the participating nations will convene directly.
Earlier US-led negotiation rounds collapsed in February after yielding minimal progress toward ending Europe’s deadliest conflict since World War II.
While Kyiv rejects any proposal requiring it to cede territory currently under its control, Russia maintains its demand that Ukraine surrender the entire eastern Donbas region, including areas Moscow does not militarily occupy.
These latest diplomatic initiatives follow recent friction between Washington and Kyiv, along with several policy moves by US President Donald Trump that observers interpret as favoring Russia.
Backstory…
The latest ceasefire agreement between Ukraine and Russia comes as diplomatic efforts to end the war continue, more than four years after Moscow launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
Previous rounds of negotiations, including US-mediated talks, have failed to produce a comprehensive peace agreement, largely because of disagreements over territory, Ukraine’s future security arrangements and Russia’s demands for control of the eastern Donbas region.
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