WASHINGTON — First lady Melania Trump will bring representatives of Russia and Ukraine together at the White House on Thursday, the White House said Tuesday, and she will speak there about the Oleshky ceasefire.
Her remarks are set for 11 a.m. ET on Thursday, Nov. 5, at the White House, the Office of the First Lady said. The office described the event as an “extraordinary moment in American history.”
The meeting was Mrs. Trump’s own idea, the statement said. She set the engagement between the two warring nations in motion herself and, through it, secured the ceasefire in Oleshky and the surrounding Kherson region. Her office called that work an unprecedented diplomatic initiative by an American first lady.
When she announced that ceasefire on Oct. 23, her office said both nations had agreed to stop all military action in Oleshky so humanitarian aid could enter and civilians could prepare to evacuate through a designated safe passageway. The localized ceasefire was to begin Oct. 29.
The work on the ground was left to civilians, not soldiers. “Non-military, civilian leaders from both countries will work together to visit Oleshky residents in their homes and determine the level of assistance they require,” she said in October. Residents who wanted to leave would get coordinated support and transportation to the destination they preferred, she said, adding, “I anticipate some will want to go to Russia, and some to Ukraine.”
Oleshky sits in southern Ukraine, across the Dnipro River from the city of Kherson. About 24,000 people lived there before the war. Her office estimates that 1,700 to 2,000 residents remain, most of them elderly people who have been unable to leave, along with about 50 children, and says about 90 percent of the city’s territory was flooded after the destruction of the Kakhovka Dam.
Virginia Times reported last week that evacuations from Oleshky had begun under the truce, with residents boarding buses for destinations in Russia or Ukraine.
The White House statement did not name the Russian and Ukrainian representatives who will take part on Thursday, and it did not say whether the meeting would produce any new agreement.
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