Overview
- Officials from both sides say the local ceasefire has held for about 54 hours and allowed teams to clear mines and prepare a safe humanitarian corridor.
- Humanitarian supplies are being assembled for delivery on Friday and an organised civilian evacuation through the corridor is scheduled for Saturday.
- Ukrainian and Russian human-rights commissioners credited mediation by Melania Trump and phone interventions by Pope Leo XIV for helping secure the multi-day pause.
- Oleschky’s population has fallen from about 24,000 before the war to an estimated 1,500–2,000 people now, leaving many facing shortages of food and medicine after months of isolation.
- The pause covers only a small front area and does not stop fighting elsewhere in Ukraine, where officials reported a deadly Russian drone strike in Dnipro region that killed 13 people earlier on Thursday.