Ukraine war: ceasefire in Oleshky
A ceasefire has come into force in the Russian-occupied city of Oleshky in southern Ukraine, to allow humanitarian aid to be delivered and the remaining civilian population to be evacuated. Residents of the city are starving because they have had little access to food, water or other supplies for a long time due to landmines and drone attacks. Melania Trump played a key role in securing the truce.
Evacuation into the unknown
For TVNet, the local ceasefire is fraught with uncertainties:
“The agreed evacuation route passes through Russian-occupied territory, and the evacuation itself will be carried out by the Russian side. ... There has been no public statement as to who will monitor compliance with the ceasefire, and reports on the duration of the agreement vary. ... Even if the evacuation is successful, the return of Oleshky's residents to their homes remains a distant and uncertain prospect. As long as Russia keeps using the city as a base for attacks on Kherson, its buildings and streets will remain a battlefield.”
A bigger success than Trump's diesel deal
Avvenire sees the ceasefire as a ray of hope among the otherwise fruitless efforts at de-escalation:
“It will enable residents trapped in one of the country's many long-suffering cities to receive provisions and be evacuated. The US president's attempt to link a partial suspension of the bombing of infrastructure to American energy requirements has, however, failed, despite the controversial concessions made to Putin regarding oil sanctions. These are factors that must not be overlooked if peace negotiations for a war that has been raging for 1,708 days and which brings a fresh suffering and destruction every night are to be seriously considered.”
Don’t fall for the propaganda
Peter Pomerantsev, executive editor of The Reckoning Project, an organisation dedicated to documenting war crimes, warns in The Kyiv Independent:
“This city of weak, hungry and vulnerable people will face a new danger as Oleshky slowly opens: under the pressure of living on the brink of death, they could become props for Russian propagandists attempting to rewrite the history of what happened in the city. ... Key Russian media figures are already starting to spread the narrative that Russia is 'rescuing' the residents that it has been terrorising. ... At moments like this it's important that news media do not slide into bothsideism which credits well-known sources of disinformation with the same valency as more reliable sources.”