Melania Trump, the first lady, said on Friday that she had brokered a cease-fire between Russian and Ukrainian forces in Oleshky, a southern Ukrainian city that is occupied by Russia and whose citizens are cut off from food and medical aid.
Mrs. Trump said the cease-fire would allow residents of the frontline city to leave “through a designated safe passageway.” The city, in the Kherson region of Ukraine, has been occupied by Russia since it began its full-scale invasion in February 2022.
“It was abundantly clear that without my intervention, the possibility to bring humanitarian aid into the city and to evacuate the elderly would be impossible,” she said in a statement, adding that the “localized cease-fire” would begin on Thursday. Pope Leo XIV also lobbied Mr. Putin for a cease-fire in recent days, calling the Russian leader from his hospital bed after undergoing lung surgery.
David Arakhamia, the head of President Volodymyr Zelensky’s party faction in the Ukrainian Parliament, said in a statement that the cease-fire would begin in “the near future,” with the goal to establish “permanent humanitarian corridors for the safe evacuation of civilians and the delivery of aid.” He offered “sincere gratitude” to Mrs. Trump and the pope.
Dmitri S. Peskov, a spokesman for the Kremlin, said in a statement that the Russian military was “working on agreeing upon the timing of a cease-fire in that area to enable this humanitarian mission.” The first lady “made a significant contribution” to the negotiations, he said.
The unusual announcement by the first lady, who has tried to position herself as an intermediary between the warring sides, underscored the Trump administration’s freewheeling and unorthodox approach to diplomacy. It came as Ukraine and U.S. allies try to head off a turn toward Russia by President Trump that they fear could alter the course of the war.
In recent days, Mr. Trump has defended Vladimir V. Putin, the Russian leader, and demanded that the Ukrainians replace Mr. Zelensky. He has also arranged to purchase diesel from Moscow and insisted to reporters that “Russia, frankly, has been fine on Ukraine,” even as Russia attacks civilians with missiles and drones.
Earlier this week, Mr. Trump’s special envoy, Steve Witkoff, called Mr. Putin a “humanitarian” for releasing an American held for more than four years on what the State Department called fabricated charges.
Mr. Zelensky, for his part, has accused Mr. Trump of pushing Ukraine to surrender. He has also asked for the administration’s help in unblocking Starshield, a military version of the Starlink satellite network run by SpaceX that enables Ukrainian drones to attack against Russian forces. Mr. Trump has since called Elon Musk, who controls SpaceX, and asked him to restore communications.
Mrs. Trump has ramped up her own diplomatic efforts. During a rally in Iowa on Thursday, the president said that his wife is “actually becoming the next Eleanor Roosevelt.”
The first lady has “a direct line” to Ukrainian and Russian leadership, her adviser, Marc Beckman, told the pro-Trump Newsmax network in an interview on Friday.
“Both sides formally recognized her as an intermediary and in writing, and they gave her the power to negotiate this cease-fire,” Mr. Beckman said. “And she’s been working tirelessly now for over a month to make sure that this occurs.”
In a statement, Mrs. Trump said that she would send “an impartial American media organization to accompany and document Russian and Ukrainian teams on the ground.” The network is Newsmax.
Oleshky is separated by the Dnipro River from the larger city of Kherson, which Russia captured in early 2022 and surrendered later that year. Russian forces strike Kherson from across the river in Oleshky, and Ukrainian forces strike Oleshky from Kherson. The circumstances are among the worst anywhere in Ukraine. Swarms of drones, ubiquitous mines and destroyed infrastructure make it exceedingly difficult for residents to leave or for help to arrive.
In the past, Ukrainians have fled Oleshky by traveling deeper into Russian-occupied Ukraine, then crossing through Russia and Belarus to re-enter Ukrainian-controlled territory. It was not immediately clear how evacuees could leave the city, and what route they would take. The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Friday.
In her statement, Mrs. Trump said she was made aware of the conditions in Oleshky during a private meeting in New York while attending the United Nations General Assembly in late September. For more than a year, she has also made direct appeals to Mr. Putin to reunite dozens of Ukrainian and Russian children with families that were separated after Mr. Putin began the invasion.
According to the White House, at least 34 children have been returned to their families, but officials have not said how many children were returned from each country.
In 2023, the International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant for Mr. Putin for war crimes, saying he bore criminal responsibility for the abduction and deportation of Ukrainian children. Since the beginning of the war, Ukraine has accused Russia of abducting more than 19,000 children, according to humanitarian groups. Mr. Beckman said on Friday “that there are some Russian kids that have come back from Ukraine to their families in Russia as well.”
Mr. Putin has been invited to the Group of 20 meeting in Florida later this year, where the first lady is hosting an event. On Friday, Mr. Trump was asked if the first lady would take a larger role in peace talks between Ukraine and Russia. The president said no, before adding, “It’s not the worst idea I’ve ever heard.”
Reporting was contributed by Siobhán O’Grady, Marichka Varenikova and Liubov Sholudko from Kyiv, and Valerie Hopkins from Berlin.
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