Top Russian official takes US journalists into besieged Ukrainian city ahead of evacuation

A top Russian official was en route to the Russian-controlled Ukrainian town of Oleshky on Thursday with a team of US journalists amid a US-brokered ceasefire as the Kremlin said it hoped humanitarian relief would reach the area on Thursday or Friday. Russia’s human rights commissioner Yana Lantratova said she was taking 4 journalists from the US outlet Newsmax with her as her Ukrainian counterpart, Dmytro Lubinets, also made his way to the Oleshky area. Neither Ukraine nor Russia has reported any violations so far of the US-brokered six-day ceasefire, which came into effect early on Tuesday to allow evacuations and aid deliveries to Oleshky, where trapped residents have faced regular shelling and severe shortages of food and medicine with Moscow and Kyiv blaming each other for the situation. “Demining is under way there, and we hope that today or tomorrow residents will be able to receive humanitarian aid safely and without obstruction, and that those wishing to leave will be able to do so,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov was cited as saying by the Interfax news agency. The truce, brokered by US First Lady Melania Trump with the involvement of Pope Leo, applies to the town and surrounding areas, including the wider Kherson region, which has suffered years of near-daily drone and artillery attacks.