Melania Trump Sets Date for White House Meeting on Kherson Truce
Representatives from Moscow and Kyiv will convene at the White House on November 5 to review the recent six-day pause in fighting around Oleshky.
By Bianca Herrera ·
The White House will host Russian and Ukrainian officials on November 5 to discuss a localized cease-fire in the Kherson region. The meeting is scheduled two days after the first lady confirmed her role in brokering a temporary pause in combat. Both delegations have verified their attendance for the session.
The recent truce around the Russian-occupied city of Oleshky lasted from October 27 to November 2. According to Melania Trump's office, the arrangement facilitated the evacuation of nearly 800 residents to Ukrainian-controlled territory. The initiative also permitted the delivery of humanitarian aid to the area.
David Arakhamia, who heads President Volodymyr Zelenskyy's Servant of the People faction, will represent Ukraine at the November 5 meeting. Dmytro Lubinets, the Ukrainian human rights ombudsman, will also attend. Russia will send Kirill Dmitriev, head of the Russian Direct Investment Fund, and Yana Lantratova, the Russian human rights commissioner.
The White House gathering occurs just days before a larger diplomatic push. Russia confirmed on November 3 that trilateral talks involving Moscow, Kyiv, and Washington will take place in Abu Dhabi on November 10 and 11. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov stated that Vladimir Medinsky, a longtime aide to President Vladimir Putin, will lead the Russian delegation for those talks.
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andriy Sybiha described the situation in Oleshky as desperate in September. He noted that some residents consumed grass and weeds due to shortages of food, medicine, clean water, and electricity. The city on the eastern bank of the Dnieper River had a prewar population of approximately 24,000. Only a small fraction of those residents remained after displacement.
Ukrainian officials accused Russian forces of using the pause to reinforce military positions in the area. Eugene Goncharov, director of policy at the American Coalition for Ukraine, welcomed the cease-fire but cautioned against expecting a wider breakthrough. He told RFE/RL that Russia could end the war at any time but had chosen not to engage in serious cease-fire efforts in the past. He added that perhaps this time will be different.
Matthew Boyse, a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute, suggested Russia may seek to build on the initiative by offering further localized pauses in exchange for major Ukrainian concessions. He noted that the gap between Moscow and Kyiv on postwar security remains wide. Boyse said it is difficult to imagine how their differences can be bridged at this time. He added that Russia believes time is on its side.
William Taylor, a former US ambassador to Ukraine, said any meaningful breakthrough depends on Putin agreeing to a broader cease-fire. He stated that the US and Ukraine support a cease-fire, but it remains unclear whether Moscow is prepared to do the same. Taylor said that once a political agreement to stop fighting is reached, military experts can work out technical details such as monitoring mechanisms using drones and sensors. He described the technical work as easy, while calling Putin's agreement the hard part.
International efforts to advance the peace process continue alongside these talks. The European Commission will host US, Ukrainian, and European representatives in Brussels on November 4. Delegations from France, Germany, Britain, and NATO, alongside the World Bank, will attend. The Coalition of the Willing is scheduled to gather on November 19. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio is expected to attend a Group of Seven foreign ministers' meeting in Marseille, France, on November 9 and 10, where Ukraine will be a key issue.
