Russia, Ukraine down weapons as war starves town
Jekaterina Golubkova |
Russia and Ukraine have begun a partial ceasefire to let aid flow to a starving town, after an inquiry found Moscow had committed war crimes in the broader conflict.
The counties downed weapons on Tuesday to allow humanitarian efforts in Oleshky in Ukraine’s south, which Russian troops seized during the first days of their February 2022 invasion and have controlled ever since.
The White House said on Friday Melania Trump helped secure the rare ceasefire, which should also enable evacuations from the frontline town, where food and medicine shortages are acute.
“As head of the Ukrainian negotiating team, I confirm that the Ukrainian side is honouring its commitments,” Dmytro Lubinets, the parliamentary commissioner for human rights, said in a Facebook post.
On Telegram, Russia’s defence ministry said it stopped shelling in the direction of Ukraine’s city of Kherson from 4am, Moscow time, to prepare for the effort in Oleshky, which faces Kherson across the Dnipro River.
Lubinets said the deal was reached in coordination with the US first lady, in co-operation with Russia’s commissioner for human rights, Yana Lantratova.
It comes as a UN-backed inquiry concluded Russia had committed war crimes and crimes against humanity in Ukraine by intentionally attacking energy infrastructure, leaving millions of people without electricity and heat in freezing temperatures.
The power cuts have also left the elderly without elevators to get to shelters during missile and drone attacks, and hospital patients without critical devices to keep them alive, the report said.
The independent commission of inquiry, authorised by the Geneva-based Human Rights Council, also found evidence Russia recruited men from 29 countries into its armed forces “through deception or coercion” to fight in Ukraine in violation of international law.
The men “came mostly from vulnerable and marginalised communities, with a poor economic background and a low education level”, it said.
Commission chair Erik Mose told a UN news conference the energy infrastructure attacks constituted war crimes because they were intentionally directed against civilian objects, as well as crimes against humanity for “inflicting great suffering to civilians”.
The commission said it based its findings on the accounts of 255 Ukrainians who endured winter conditions in Kyiv and eight other regions in 2025-26 as well as government officials, doctors and civic organisations.
Russia’s UN Mission said Russia did not recognise the mandate of the commission and claimed its findings were based on “falsified data”.
Throughout the war, Russia has consistently maintained that its forces are only striking military or military-related targets in Ukraine, or targets that are used in the interest of the Ukrainian armed forces, despite multiple reports and evidence indicating otherwise.
Russia’s latest attacks struck a major road bridge in Kyiv overnight in attacks that included 16 ballistic missiles and more than 280 drones, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Tuesday, calling it a serious escalation against Ukrainian logistics.
“Tragically, there have been casualties and hits in Kyiv, including on the South Bridge,” he said on X, referring to one of the main road bridges over the Dnipro River that bisects the Ukrainian capital.
“A serious escalation in Russia’s operation against our logistics. There were also strikes on the Kyiv, Vinnytsia, Zaporizhzhia, Dnipro, Kharkiv, Odesa, Chernihiv, Sumy, Donetsk, Kherson, and Chernivtsi regions.”
The Russian defence ministry said its forces had struck a cargo vessel in the Black Sea, transporting cargo for the Ukrainian military, and an industrial facility in Kyiv, involved in producing and storing drones.
A drone attack killed a man and wounded six people in the western Russian city of Bryansk close to the border with Ukraine.
White House envoys have talked to both sides in recent days to try to find a solution as the US looks to mediate a peace deal to end the war, Europe’s deadliest conflict since the World War II.
On Friday, Zelenskiy said peace negotiators from Ukraine, Russia and the US had agreed to meet at a technical level in the first half of November in Abu Dhabi to continue the talks.
Reuters