Oleshky truce set to expire, but diplomacy stirs among key players

At 10pm Swiss time this evening, the truce granted in the Ukrainian city of Oleshky, under Russian occupation, is due to expire. During the pause in hostilities, food and medicine supplies were allowed in, and civilians who wished to leave the city were able to do so. Before the truce, the area was under drone attack and the escape routes were mined.

Ukraine's foreign ministry told Agence France-Presse it had proposed extending the truce to Moscow, but Russia refused.

A positive outcome, but the war goes on

The two main mediators of the agreement, Ukraine's human rights commissioner Dmytro Lubinets and his Russian counterpart Yana Lantratova, described the truce as a success and expressed hope that similar initiatives could be repeated. The same hope was voiced today by Pope Leo XIV, who, together with US First Lady Melania Trump, had helped organise the truce. At the Angelus, the Pope said he hoped the cooperation between the parties would strengthen the will for dialogue and lead to new, concrete peace initiatives.

The truce, the longest since the start of the conflict, also covered the nearby city of Kherson, one of the most heavily bombed in Ukraine. During the pause, 167 civilians were also evacuated from the occupied Kherson region, according to Ukraine's General Staff, cited by the Ukrinform news agency. Moscow and Kyiv nonetheless accused each other of using the truce to strengthen their military positions, and with the agreement expiring, Kherson is likely to come under bombardment again.

Fighting continued in the rest of the country: more than twenty people have died across Ukraine in recent days, Kyiv has been bombed daily, and in Dnipro millions of people were left without electricity and water. After the brief pause, Ukrainian forces also resumed attacks on Russian refineries.

On the diplomatic front, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said he was ready to meet Vladimir Putin in Turkey, hoping the Turkish president could help facilitate negotiations. Zelensky is calling for talks at the highest level on the key issues: a lasting ceasefire, a mechanism to monitor compliance with it, security guarantees and reconstruction. He reiterated that he would not accept ceding the Donbas or recognising Russia's annexation of Crimea. Putin responded that Zelensky could come to Moscow if he wants to talk.

On the sidelines of the G20 in Atlanta, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio held what he described as a "brief exchange" with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on a possible meeting between Donald Trump and Putin at the APEC summit on 18 and 19 November in Shenzhen, China. Lavrov called it "a rather pleasant conversation." Trump reportedly would have "no problem" inviting Zelensky to the summit as well.