“Now, we must use the courage we brought to Oleshky to find common ground through a shared concern for the suffering of innocent people”, Trump told delegations gathered in the East Room.
She thanked the leaders of both countries for the truce, which ran from October 27 to November 1, saying: “Oleshky will forever unite the brave individuals gathered at the White House today.”
Trump said the pause in fighting allowed nearly 800 people to leave the town, which lies about 4 km from Kherson on the Russian-held bank of the Dnipro River. Russian human rights commissioner Yana Lantratova, who also attended, put the number at “significantly fewer than 750”.
Kirill Dmitriev, an envoy of Russian President Vladimir Putin, did not respond directly to the call for a lasting settlement. He said Putin valued the efforts of US President Donald Trump’s team to end what he called the “Ukrainian crisis”, and handed the first lady a drawing by a girl evacuated from the town.
The Ukrainian side was more forthcoming. Davyd Arakhamia, head of the ruling party’s parliamentary faction, urged Trump to stay involved and seek further de-escalation, saying her mission stood above politics. Human rights ombudsman Dmytro Lubinets presented her with the Order of Princess Olga, First Class, an honour conferred by President Volodymyr Zelensky.
The event was the first public visit by a Russian government representative to the White House since 2019. Dmitriev, who heads Russia’s state-run Direct Investment Fund, is under US sanctions, which have been suspended while he takes part in talks on the war in Ukraine.
Before the truce, about 2,000 people, including 50 children, were living in Oleshky without enough food or drinking water, according to the US side.
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Source: PAP, White House