Melania Trump calls for lasting Ukraine truce as she hosts Russian and Ukrainian officials

Melania Trump used a White House event on Thursday to push for a longer-lasting halt to fighting in Ukraine, hosting Russian and Ukrainian officials who came to mark a local truce she is credited with arranging. BBC, PBS NewsHour and The Independent report that the six-day pause, from Oct. 27 to Nov. 1, let hundreds of people leave the besieged town of Oleshky in Kherson, according to PBS NewsHour · BBC.

PBS NewsHour says the first lady put the number of evacuees at nearly 800 and that roughly 2,000 people were still in town when the pause began. Kremlin envoy Kirill Dmitriev said Vladimir Putin personally gave instructions for the operation. Ukrainian lawmaker Davyd Arakhamia urged her to pursue further efforts, and ombudsman Dmytro Lubinets also spoke. Per the BBC, she gave Dmitriev and Arakhamia letters for the two presidents.

President Donald Trump, speaking separately, said he met Dmitriev but not any Ukrainians, would not describe the talks, and predicted a "big agreement" reaching beyond Ukraine. The BBC adds that a Kherson official said the groundwork predated others' involvement, while a source close to U.S. officials credited Putin. Volodymyr Zelenskyy said the truce showed that fighting stops when Putin wants it to.

Summarized by PolitiKool from PBS NewsHour · BBC, PBS NewsHour and The Independent’s reporting. Read the full story at PBS NewsHour · BBC → Also at PBS NewsHour → Also at The Independent →