Key facts
- Putin supports Vatican initiative for Oleshky aid and evacuation.
- Pope Leo urged a truce for aid delivery and civilian evacuation.
- Kremlin stated readiness to cooperate on the matter.
- Around 2,000 residents remain trapped in Oleshky amid shortages.
- Russia blamed Ukraine for obstructing aid deliveries.
Russian President Vladimir Putin spoke with Pope Leo XIV on October 16, 2026, backing a Vatican initiative to deliver humanitarian aid to civilians in the occupied Ukrainian city of Oleshky. The Kremlin stated its readiness to cooperate on the matter. Pope Leo had urged Putin to agree to a truce to allow aid deliveries and the voluntary evacuation of civilians from the front-line city, where around 2,000 residents remain trapped amid severe shortages of food and medicine. Russia acknowledged critical problems with supplies but blamed Ukraine for obstructing deliveries. Oleshky, located on the eastern bank of the Dnipro River in Ukraine's Kherson region, had a pre-war population of approximately 24,000.