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Melania Trump secures a truce for Oleshky. The risk is that Putin will use it as a showcase
Humanitarian aid and the evacuation of the 1,000 civilians trapped in the Russian-occupied Ukrainian town are due to begin on 27 October. The ceasefire announced by the White House is welcome, but let us hope the announcement does not simply become propaganda.
The situation is such that, if one is to look for any sensible action from the White House regarding its dealings with Ukraine, one must pin one’s hopes on First Lady Melania Trump, who today – as announced by Washington – has managed to secure a truce for the inhabitants of the town of Oleshky, who are exhausted, starving and wounded, and are being used by Moscow as human shields to prevent Kyiv from striking them. From 27 October, a complex operation will begin to allow humanitarian aid to enter and to facilitate the evacuation of civilians – something Russia has so far prevented because enemy military operations are more difficult in a populated area. No humanitarian aid has reached the town since the end of May, and the situation was already desperate even before that.
Ukrainian soldiers had told Il Foglio how they managed communications with civilians still inside the city, and the codes developed to make it easier to target the enemy: to evade detection by Kyiv’s drones, Russian soldiers dressed as elderly women and lived in civilians’ homes. Now, with Melania Trump, the Russians are said to have agreed to release the people they have held hostage until now, and if they do not genuinely guarantee their evacuation, the days of the truce will be nothing more than a ploy to please the American president. There is also the question of where these people will be evacuated to: to the occupied territories? To Russia? To Ukraine? Details are scarce, but Kyiv appears reasonably optimistic about the resumption of dialogue, partly because – despite having good reasons not to believe it – it must show enthusiasm in the eyes of the White House chief, who accuses Zelensky of sabotaging the peace process.
The catastrophe in Oleshky, with its thousand inhabitants, risks becoming a showcase for an agreement that does not exist, for Moscow’s sleight of hand aimed at charming Trump, and for the isolation of Kyiv, which is fighting too many battles at once.