President Vladimir Putin told ‌a gathering with African nations in Moscow that relief supplies would begin reaching Oleshky civilians on Thursday and Friday, “with the support, incidentally, of the first lady of the United States”.

The truce applies only to ‌Oleshky and the wider Kherson region, which has suffered years of near-daily ⁠drone and artillery attacks. Some 1,500 of the town’s prewar population of 24,000 people are believed to live among the ruins, under regular shellfire amid ⁠severe shortages of food and medicine.

Ukraine has long accused Russia of refusing to let aid in or people out. Russia says it is Ukrainian mines on the approach roads and Ukrainian shelling that have ‌prevented the delivery of aid or the safe evacuation ​of residents.

Ukraine has halted its strikes on Russian oil refineries after pressure from US president Donald Trump, the Wall ⁠Street Journal reported on Thursday, citing people with knowledge of the operations.

Ukrainian units carrying out long-range strikes were told in mid-October that the campaign against refineries ⁠was effectively on hold ​once missions ⁠already in motion were completed, the Journal reported.

The unofficial pause is expected to ⁠last until after the US midterm elections and ​potentially ⁠deeper into November, it added. ‌Russia has meanwhile stepped up attacks on Ukrainian energy and civilian infrastructure.

The news of ‌a pause comes amid renewed efforts to revive US-backed peace talks to end Europe’s deadliest conflict since World War ⁠Two.

Relations between Trump and Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky have taken a sharp downward turn in recent weeks, with Trump growing increasingly frustrated over Ukrainian strikes on Russian energy infrastructure as diesel prices hit record highs.

Ukraine had refused to halt ‌the strikes, saying its long-range drone campaign ​is its only viable response to ‌years of Russian bombardment.

That ⁠prompted Trump to announce a deal to ⁠buy diesel from Moscow and waive sanctions on Moscow authorised ‌by a ​bill he signed into ‌law in September.

Russia and Ukraine said on Thursday that demining operations around the Russian-held town of Oleshky in southern Ukraine had been completed and that an operation to bring aid and allow residents to leave was ready to begin.

Efforts have been underway for several weeks to organise ⁠a relief operation for the acutely deprived town’s residents, which Russian forces seized soon after Moscow’s February 2022 invasion of its smaller neighbour.

Both sides have praised US first lady Melania Trump for helping broker a truce in a town where at least one resident who escaped said those remaining feared death by starvation.

“Demining operations of routes have been completed for the humanitarian mission in Oleshky,” the two sides said in virtually identical statements issued by Yana Lantratova, Russia’s human rights commissioner, and Dmytro Lubinets, her Ukrainian counterpart.

“The humanitarian convoy is ready for departure.”

The convoy would ⁠head for the district hospital and residents wishing to leave would be permitted to go within a specific time frame. Aid packages would then be ​distributed, the statements said.

The ⁠operation aims to address a crisis in a town ‌marooned inside a war zone since 2022. But it is also part of a diplomatic dance where both sides want to show US President Donald Trump that they back his peace efforts, albeit for different reasons.

Lantratova, Russian human rights commissioner, said she was taking four journalists from the conservative US outlet Newsmax to the area. Lubinets ‌made no reference to specific reporters.

Humanitarian aid is poised to roll into the stricken city of Oleshky, negotiators said Thursday, as a localized ceasefire between Russia and Ukraine stretched into a third day and military units cleared landmines.

Moscow and Kyiv have observed the truce in and around the devastated southern Ukrainian city since Tuesday, but remain otherwise locked in the war that began with Russia’s full-scale invasion more than four years ago. Previous ceasefire talks either failed or the truces quickly fell apart.

“Demining of the designated routes has been completed, and the humanitarian convoy has been assembled and is ready,” ombudsman Dmytro Lubinets, who heads Ukraine’s negotiating team, said Thursday. He said aid deliveries were due to begin Friday.

Elsewhere, deadly attacks continued and Ukraine’s central bank warned that damage to industrial targets could push the country into a recession.

The planned six-day ceasefire around Russian-occupied Oleshky has brought a rare and welcome stillness for civilians in the nearby city of Kherson, which is held by Ukraine and has also been wracked by the war.

Russian and Ukrainian officials head to Oleshky for aid delivery

Both sides thanked Melania Trump for what the White House called her help in brokering the ceasefire so food and medical supplies can be delivered to about 2,000 people trapped in Oleshky. Pope Leo XIV also pressed for a truce.

Russia will extend its diesel export ban until the end of the year while allowing some companies to ship fuel under a quota system to meet its new export commitment to the US, two people familiar with the discussions told Reuters.

Moscow and Washington agreed a diesel supply deal after Presidents Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump spoke by phone earlier this month.

The energy ceasefire between Russia and Ukraine announced alongside the agreement has allowed Moscow to increase fuel production. ⁠At the same time, fuel ​shortages earlier ⁠this year have prompted the government to maintain tight controls on oil product exports.

President Volodymyr Zelensky has hailed an additional £10billion support package from the UK to Ukraine after discussions with Andy Burnham.

The £10billion was announced on Wednesday by chancellor John Healey, who offered the economic and military support in the Budget.

Former UK chancellor Rachel Reeves hsa said her country and the European Union must work together to seize €210bn of Russian assets to support Ukraine this winter.

In an article for The Times, Reeves, with the former German defence minister Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer, the former French minister for Europe Nathalie Loiseau and the former Canadian deputy prime minister and finance minister Chrystia Freeland, said that taking the frozen Russian assets would ensure Kyiv’s defence into 2029.