Zelensky honours Melania Trump with Ukrainian award for Oleshky truce
Seven Lights
President Volodymyr Zelensky awarded Melania Trump a Ukrainian state honour on Wednesday for her role in brokering a localised ceasefire that allowed civilians to evacuate the Russian-occupied town of Oleshky.
“I hereby decree that the Order of Princess Olga, First Class, be awarded to Melania Trump, first lady of the United States of America,” the presidential website quoted the decree as saying. The text cited her “significant personal contribution to humanitarian support for Ukraine, and for active human rights and charitable work”.
The truce around Oleshky ran from October 27 to November 2. Mrs Trump announced the arrangement on October 23, saying she had raised the town’s humanitarian situation with Russian and Ukrainian leadership. Her office said the initiative enabled aid deliveries and the evacuation of nearly 800 people to Ukrainian-controlled territory.
Oleshky lies on the eastern bank of the Dnieper River in the occupied Kherson region and had a prewar population of about 24,000. Only a fraction of residents remained after displacement. Ukraine’s foreign minister, Andriy Sybiha, said in September that some had been forced to eat grass and weeds amid shortages of food, medicine, clean water and electricity. Kyiv accused Russian forces of exploiting the pause to reinforce their positions in the area.
Russian and Ukrainian delegations, invited by the first lady, were due to meet at the White House on Thursday. Ukraine sent David Arakhamia, head of Mr Zelensky’s parliamentary faction, and Dmytro Lubinets, the human rights ombudsman. Russia was expected to field Kirill Dmitriev, head of the Russian Direct Investment Fund, and Yana Lantratova, Russia’s human rights commissioner.
The White House said Mrs Trump had “independently initiated engagement between the two warring nations and successfully secured a ceasefire”, adding that the achievement “marks an unprecedented diplomatic initiative by an American First Lady”. Both sides thanked her for brokering the truce without elaborating on the nature or extent of her involvement.
The meeting sits within a wider diplomatic calendar. Ukraine, Russia and the United States have confirmed that negotiators will meet in Abu Dhabi on November 10 and 11, the first talks among all three sides since February. Mr Zelensky, meanwhile, was received by King Felipe VI of Spain near Madrid, where discussions were expected to address efforts to end the nearly five-year war, postwar security arrangements and de-escalation.