Key facts
- Melania Trump's office said the Oleshky initiative enabled delivery of critical aid and the evacuation of nearly 800 people.
- Ukraine will be represented by David Arakhamia and Dmytro Lubinets, per sources who spoke to RFE/RL.
- Russia is expected to send Kirill Dmitriev and Yana Lantratova, per sources who spoke to RFE/RL.
- The Oleshky cease-fire ran from October 27 to November 2, per reporting on the arrangement.
- The Kremlin said the Oleshky cease-fire should not be extrapolated to the broader peace settlement process.
- Trilateral talks with Washington are expected to take place in Abu Dhabi on November 10-11, Russia confirmed on November 3.
US first lady Melania Trump will host Russian and Ukrainian representatives at the White House on November 5 for a meeting on a localized cease-fire in Ukraine's southern Kherson region. Both sides confirmed they will take part, RFE/RL reported on November 4.
Ukraine will be represented by David Arakhamia, head of President Volodymyr Zelenskyy's Servant of the People parliamentary faction, and Dmytro Lubinets, the country's human rights ombudsman, according to sources who spoke to RFE/RL. Russia is expected to send Kremlin envoy Kirill Dmitriev, head of the Russian Direct Investment Fund, and Yana Lantratova, Russia's human rights commissioner.
The meeting follows a six-day cease-fire in and around Oleshky, a Russian-occupied city in the Kherson region, which ran from October 27 to November 2. Melania Trump announced on October 23 that she had helped secure the arrangement after raising the humanitarian situation there with Russian and Ukrainian leadership. Her office said the initiative enabled the delivery of critical aid and the evacuation of nearly 800 people who were able to return to Ukrainian-controlled territory.
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andriy Sybiha said in September that some residents had been forced to eat grass and weeds amid shortages of food, medicine, clean water and electricity. The city, on the eastern bank of the Dnieper River, had a prewar population of about 24,000, and only a fraction of its residents remained after displacement and evacuations.
Ukraine accused Russian forces of using the temporary pause to reinforce their positions in the area. As evacuations continued on October 30, the Kremlin said the temporary cease-fire should not be extrapolated to the broader peace settlement process.
Separately, Russia confirmed on November 3 that trilateral talks involving Moscow, Kyiv and Washington will take place in Abu Dhabi on November 10-11. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Vladimir Medinsky, a longtime aide to President Vladimir Putin, will lead Moscow's delegation. The US-mediated discussions are expected to address efforts to end Russia's nearly five-year war against Ukraine, postwar security arrangements and de-escalation.
The European Commission is scheduled to host US, Ukrainian and European representatives in Brussels on November 4, with delegations from France, Germany, Britain and NATO and the World Bank attending. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio is expected to attend a Group of Seven foreign ministers' meeting in Marseille on November 9-10.