Russia-Ukraine begin local ceasefire for humanitarian aid

Russia and Ukraine began observing a localised ceasefire in a devastated southern Ukrainian city on Tuesday, ahead of a planned humanitarian mission brokered by US first lady Melania Trump. But Moscow kept up its deadly missile attacks on other cities in the meantime.

Meanwhile, Finland’s president and Norway’s prime minister spoke on the phone with Russian President Vladimir Putin, officials said, in their first known direct contact since shortly after Russia’s all-out invasion of Ukraine began on February. 24, 2022.

The war launched by Russia set most of Europe against Moscow, with Western officials accusing Putin of masterminding a campaign of disruption across the continent.

After their conversation with Putin, Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Store and Finnish President Alexander Stubb spoke with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, according to Zelenskyy’s office.

A local pause in fighting started at 3 am to allow an aid mission into the Russian-occupied city of Oleshky later this week. The situation in Oleshky is desperate, with food and medical supplies running perilously low for the up to 2,000 people still there, as drones and land mines restrict movement. Deep mistrust between Russia and Ukraine, as Moscow’s full-scale invasion nears the five-year mark in February, has undermined previous attempts at limited ceasefires, which quickly unravelled or never took hold. The humanitarian truce was a high-stakes operation for both Moscow and Kyiv, with both sides keen to win US President Donald Trump’s favour. Russian and Ukrainian negotiators, as well as the militaries of the two countries, confirmed in separate statements that the Oleshky ceasefire had begun.

The phone calls with the Russian and Ukrainian leaders followed an Oct. 20 meeting in Oslo between the two Nordic leaders, Zelenskyy and US special envoy Steve Witkoff. Stubb and Store initiated the call with Putin to discuss the war and upcoming trilateral talks involving delegations from Russia, Ukraine and the United States that are expected to take place next month in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates. The talks will seek to lay the groundwork for detailed peace negotiations later.

The two European leaders spoke on behalf of their own countries and not the whole of Europe, the statements said. “The discussion was frank and substantive,” Stubb said.  But Denmark’s prime minister said she was “very sceptical” of reaching out directly to Putin, saying she sees “no signs that Russia desires peace with Europe” and noting that the call was not coordinated with other European leaders. “I believe we should keep Europe united, rather than going it alone,” Mette Frederiksen said.