Ukraine, Russia say US-brokered truce holding in ravaged city

A local truce between Ukraine and Russia aimed at allowing humanitarian aid into the Russian-occupied city of Oleshky appears to be tentatively holding, hours after Russia fired missiles on a university campus in Kyiv. Ukraine, Russia say US-brokered truce holding in ravaged cityBoth sides said the ceasefire brokered by US First Lady Melania Trump had begun at 3:00 am local time and was in effect through the morning.

AFP was not able to immediately verify whether there had been a decrease in fighting. The war-ravaged city in Ukraine's southern Kherson region has been caught in middle of the fighting since 2022, when it was seized by Russian forces at the start of their invasion.

Former residents told AFP earlier this year that those remaining in the city were starving, lacked medicine and could not easily leave. A spokesman for Ukraine's Marine Corps, Pavlo Drogal, told reporters that "the enemy is observing the ceasefire" as of 9:00 am local time.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov also said there had been no reports of violations. Kyiv's human rights ombudsman Dmytro Lubinets said earlier on Telegram that "the sides are adhering to the agreements that we reached". But elsewhere, Russia continued to pummel the rest of Ukraine with air barrages.

Ballistic missiles struck a university campus in Kyiv on Monday evening, damaging a dorm and wounding 12 people, including five students and university staff, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said. Another strike hit the capital's Southern Bridge a major transport artery damaging infrastructure for the Kyiv metro.

In Russia, two people were killed "as a result of explosive devices being dropped" on the western city of Bryansk, regional acting governor Yegor Kovalchuk said. The ceasefire in Oleshky comes as the Ukraine war grinds through its fifth year, with no signs of a broader end to the conflict.

Announcing the agreement last Friday, US First Lady Melania Trump said civilian officials from both Russia and Ukraine would visit residents in their homes and "determine the level of assistance they require", including with evacuation.

"I anticipate some will want to go to Russia, and some to Ukraine," she said. Newsmax, a right-wing US cable network, has said it had been granted "exclusive television access" to accompany observers entering the city on Thursday.

Russian state television on Tuesday aired reports purporting to show several people leaving the city on bikes, without saying when the images were filmed. Neither Russia nor Ukraine have said how long the truce will last.