Russian Invasion The Negotiations

White House: Local Ceasefire in Famine-Stricken Oleshky – With Help from Melania Trump

Russia and Ukraine have agreed to a temporary ceasefire in the occupied Ukrainian city of Oleshky, where an acute food shortage prevails, the White House stated, according to Reuters.

The ceasefire was reportedly negotiated by Melania Trump and is set to take effect on October 29. Both countries have allegedly agreed to halt operations in the city to allow aid to arrive and to prepare for the evacuation of civilians.

“The city is on the brink of a catastrophe,” says Melania Trump.

Neither Russia nor Ukraine has commented.

Residents of Oleshky have reported, among other things, that children are suffering from malnutrition and that there is a lack of medical care.

Analyses: Evocative of Chamberlain in Munich 1938

Russia has long sought to separate negotiations regarding the war in Ukraine from its diplomatic and economic relationship with the United States—and now appears to be succeeding. This is according to *New York Times* international correspondent Valerie Hopkins, following this week’s negotiations in Oslo and Saint Petersburg.

She points, for instance, to Donald Trump’s diesel deal with Vladimir Putin.

“The diesel deal bolstered Moscow’s argument that Western nations imposing sanctions on Russia would suffer by losing access to cheap Russian energy and other economic ties,” Hopkins writes.

Trump’s overtures may explain why Putin is receptive to trilateral talks concerning Ukraine, writes *Washington Post* foreign affairs columnist David Ignatius. But so far, it is just talk, with no actual concessions from the Russian side.

“It is still like clapping with one hand,” he writes.

Simon Tisdall, foreign affairs editor at The Guardian, argues that Trump has betrayed Ukraine and that it is time for Europe’s leaders to act. Looking back at history, he does not mince his words.

“Donald Trump’s shameless policy of appeasement toward Vladimir Putin brings to mind Neville Chamberlain’s failed attempt in Munich in 1938 to prevent war with Nazi Germany,” writes Tisdall.