Latest / The President's Daily Brief / PDB Afternoon Bulletin | October 27th, 2026: Russia and Ukraine Agree to Rare Ceasefire After Years of War

Transcript

PDB Afternoon Bulletin | October 27th, 2026: Russia and Ukraine Agree to Rare Ceasefire After Years of War · The President's Daily Brief

• 0:12
  It's Tuesday,
• 0:12
  the twenty-seventh of October.
• 0:14
  Welcome to the PDB afternoon bulletin.
• 0:17
  I'm Mike Baker,
• 0:17
  your eyes and ears
• 0:19
  on the world stage.
• 0:20
  Alright,
• 0:21
  let's get briefed.
• 0:22
  First up,
• 0:23
  a rare diplomatic breakthrough in Ukraine,
• 0:26
  as Russia and Kiev
• 0:28
  agreed to temporarily halt fighting in a city devastated by years of war.
• 0:33
  I'll have the details.
• 0:35
  Later in the show,
• 0:36
  Hezbollah is quietly rebuilding its arsenal with Iranian money,
• 0:40
  producing armed drones and
• 0:42
  preparing for another possible showdown with Israel.
• 0:45
  Now the Iranian people
• 0:47
  may be facing a crumbling economy with soaring food prices
• 0:50
  and a near worthless currency and severe economic hardships,
• 0:54
  but the Islamic Republic leadership,
• 0:56
  whoever they are at this point,
• 0:58
  are still funneling money to their proxies to buy weapons and missiles and drones.
• 1:03
  I'm going to go out on a limb here
• 1:06
  and say this regime will never change its stripes.
• 1:09
  But first,
• 1:09
  today's afternoon spotlight.
• 1:12
  Russia and Ukraine have agreed to a rare ceasefire in a Russian occupied city,
• 1:17
  allowing thousands of trapped civilians a chance to
• 1:19
  escape years of fighting.
• 1:21
  But Putin's humanitarian instincts only go so far.
• 1:24
  Even as the agreement takes effect,
• 1:26
  Moscow is continuing its assault on the rest of Ukraine,
• 1:30
  launching hundreds of drones and ballistic missiles
• 1:32
  in one of its latest large scale attacks.
• 1:36
  The ceasefire centers on Oleshki,
• 1:38
  that's a city in southern Ukraine.
• 1:40
  That Russian forces captured during the opening days of the invasion
• 1:44
  back in February of 2022.
• 1:46
  According to the Financial Times,
• 1:48
  the agreement
• 1:49
  took effect early Tuesday morning,
• 1:51
  establishing a temporary pause
• 1:53
  in fighting to allow humanitarian operations
• 1:56
  in and around that city.
• 1:59
  Before the war,
• 1:59
  Oleki was home to roughly 24,000 people.
• 2:03
  Today,
• 2:03
  An estimated 2000 civilians remain trapped there,
• 2:06
  living under increasingly desperate conditions.
• 2:09
  Food,
• 2:10
  medicine,
• 2:10
  clean water,
• 2:11
  and electricity
• 2:12
  are all very much in short supply.
• 2:14
  The city was also devastated by the destruction of the Kakova Dam in 2023,
• 2:20
  which resulted in catastrophic flooding across the region.
• 2:23
  And for those hoping to escape,
• 2:25
  the journey has been extraordinarily dangerous.
• 2:28
  Roads are littered with destroyed vehicles.
• 2:30
  Landmines threaten evacuation routes,
• 2:32
  and drones have made traveling through the area even more dangerous.
• 2:36
  Under the new temporary limited agreement,
• 2:39
  Russian forces are expected to clear mines from designated routes,
• 2:43
  allowing buses to begin evacuating residents later this week.
• 2:46
  Humanitarian supplies are also expected to reach civilians who choose to remain.
• 2:52
  But perhaps the most surprising part of the
• 2:53
  story is how the ceasefire came together,
• 2:56
  reportedly.
• 2:57
  The White House credits First Lady Melania Trump
• 3:00
  with helping secure the agreement,
• 3:02
  working with civilian negotiators from Russia and Ukraine,
• 3:05
  following discussions with UN officials.
• 3:08
  Pope Leo the 14th also reportedly played a role,
• 3:11
  speaking directly with Russian President Putin
• 3:14
  earlier this month
• 3:15
  to press for humanitarian access.
• 3:18
  The agreement was announced by the White House last Friday
• 3:21
  before taking effect early Tuesday morning.
• 3:24
  However,
• 3:25
  even this limited humanitarian operation comes with complications.
• 3:29
  According to the Financial Times,
• 3:31
  some evacuees could be transported through Russian occupied Crimea
• 3:34
  or into
• 3:35
  Russia before eventually reaching Ukrainian-controlled territory.
• 3:39
  Ukrainian President Zelensky has expressed concerns that Moscow
• 3:43
  could exploit those evacuations for propaganda,
• 3:46
  portraying civilians traveling into Russian territory
• 3:48
  as evidence of support for Russian rule.
• 3:52
  And while the ceasefire offers a temporary reprieve for Olesky,
• 3:56
  the rest of Ukraine is experiencing a very different,
• 3:59
  although fairly familiar reality.
• 4:03
  As the agreement was taking effect,
• 4:05
  Russia launched another massive overnight bombardment.
• 4:08
  According to Zelensky,
• 4:10
  Moscow fired more than 280 drones and 16 ballistic missiles
• 4:14
  at targets across 11 Ukrainian regions.
• 4:17
  In Kiev,
• 4:18
  the attack struck areas around a university campus,
• 4:21
  residential buildings,
• 4:22
  transportation infrastructure,
• 4:23
  and a major bridge.
• 4:25
  Ukrainian officials reported casualties in the capital,
• 4:28
  with additional deaths reported in Kharkiv.
• 4:31
  Moscow maintains that its strikes targeted military-related transportation,
• 4:35
  logistics,
• 4:36
  and industrial facilities.
• 4:38
  Ukrainian officials dispute that characterization,
• 4:41
  pointing to damage to civilian infrastructure.
• 4:44
  Now the contrast is striking.
• 4:46
  Russia and Ukraine have found enough common ground to
• 4:48
  temporarily suspend fighting in one devastated city,
• 4:52
  even as the broader war continues with very little sign of slowing down.
• 4:57
  The development also comes amid renewed diplomatic efforts
• 5:00
  to bring the conflict to an end.
• 5:02
  President Trump's envoy,
• 5:03
  Steve Witkoff recently met with Zelensky
• 5:06
  before traveling to Russia for discussions with Putin,
• 5:09
  the humanitarian.
• 5:11
  Meanwhile,
• 5:11
  the Russian president has held conversations with
• 5:13
  the leaders of Finland and Norway,
• 5:15
  two NATO countries that
• 5:17
  share borders with Russia.
• 5:19
  And representatives for Russia,
• 5:20
  Ukraine,
• 5:21
  and the US are expected to hold another round of
• 5:24
  technical level negotiations in Abu Dhabi next month.
• 5:28
  For now,
• 5:29
  the ceasefire in Olushki represents a limited temporary breakthrough,
• 5:34
  offering desperately needed relief to civilians
• 5:37
  who've spent years trapped in a war zone.
• 5:40
  All right.
• 5:41
  Coming up next,
• 5:42
  Hezbollah is racing to rebuild after
• 5:44
  suffering devastating losses against Israel.
• 5:47
  Iran is supplying millions of dollars to
• 5:50
  restore Hezbollah's arsenal and fighting force,
• 5:52
  while new reporting
• 5:54
  raises serious questions about whether the group can survive another war.
• 5:58
  I'll be right back.
• 6:00
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• 6:00
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• 8:30
  Welcome back to the PDB afternoon bulletin.
• 8:33
  Israel may have shattered much of Hezbollah's
• 8:35
  arsenal and killed thousands of its fighters,
• 8:37
  but Iran is still paying to put its proxy back in the fight.
• 8:42
  The Iran-backed terror group is reportedly using the lull in hostilities
• 8:46
  to stockpile explosives,
• 8:47
  build attack drones,
• 8:49
  and prepare for another possible war.
• 8:52
  Now that's according to Reuters,
• 8:53
  which
• 8:53
  spoke with
• 8:54
  Lebanese security personnel briefed on Hezbollah's activities and
• 8:58
  a source also close to the organization.
• 9:01
  They describe a rebuilding effort that's been underway for the past 3 months,
• 9:05
  with tens of millions of dollars in fresh military funding
• 9:08
  coming from Iran.
• 9:09
  Now,
• 9:09
  not to be churlish,
• 9:10
  but that's tens of millions of dollars that could have
• 9:12
  been spent at home to benefit the Iranian people.
• 9:16
  And that's just the military side.
• 9:17
  One Lebanese security source and a source close to Hezbollah
• 9:21
  said Tehran also supplied roughly $200 million
• 9:25
  to help families in the group's Shiite heartlands.
• 9:28
  Iran has been invested in Hezbollah from the beginning.
• 9:31
  The Revolutionary Guard Corps,
• 9:33
  the IRGC founded the group in 1982.
• 9:36
  Now,
• 9:36
  after two wars with Israel since 2024,
• 9:39
  Tehran is helping its proxy recover.
• 9:42
  Following the American-Israeli attack on Iran.
• 9:45
  On the 28th of February,
• 9:47
  Hezbollah,
• 9:48
  in concert with the IRGC opened fire in support of Tehran on March 2nd.
• 9:53
  That decision
• 9:54
  triggered an Israeli offensive that,
• 9:56
  according to Reuters,
• 9:57
  killed more than 4000 people and displaced a quarter of Lebanon's population.
• 10:02
  That fighting largely subsided over the summer,
• 10:05
  when an interim agreement between Washington and
• 10:08
  Tehran included a ceasefire in Lebanon.
• 10:10
  The US also mediated talks between Israel and the Lebanese government,
• 10:15
  which,
• 10:15
  as we've discussed,
• 10:16
  has little to no control over Hezbollah.
• 10:20
  That American-Iranian agreement,
• 10:21
  of course,
• 10:22
  collapsed,
• 10:22
  and so far full scale fighting in Lebanon has not resumed,
• 10:26
  although Israel continues conducting occasional strikes in the south
• 10:30
  against Hezbollah targets.
• 10:32
  Two Lebanese security sources told Reuters that Hezbollah
• 10:34
  has used the lull since June to acquire explosives
• 10:38
  and produce armed drones.
• 10:40
  This month,
• 10:41
  Lebanese authorities seized explosives that
• 10:43
  Hezbollah acknowledged were its own.
• 10:45
  The group said they were intended for use against Israel.
• 10:48
  A Hezbollah official and a Lebanese security source
• 10:51
  told Reuters,
• 10:52
  more specifically,
• 10:53
  that the materials were for explosive drones.
• 10:56
  Now,
• 10:57
  having weapons is of course one thing.
• 10:59
  Being able to coordinate the fighters through established leadership
• 11:02
  is another.
• 11:03
  One Lebanese source and 3 security officials told Reuters that
• 11:07
  Hezbollah's command and control capabilities have been significantly reduced
• 11:11
  as a result of Israel's efforts to take out Hezbollah's senior leadership.
• 11:16
  The officials described Hezbollah operating in small
• 11:18
  units and rationing its anti-tank rockets.
• 11:22
  Some of those formations were left struggling
• 11:24
  to respond to Israel's remotely operated weapons,
• 11:27
  including weaponized drones and armed remote controlled vehicles.
• 11:31
  The Israeli military told Reuters it uses those systems in southern Lebanon
• 11:35
  to monitor activity and reduce the risks to its personnel.
• 11:39
  Hezbollah disputes that account of its command failures.
• 11:42
  Its media office denied that leadership lines had broken down.
• 11:46
  Hezbollah also argues that Israel's occupation of Lebanese territory
• 11:50
  gives the group a legitimate right to resist.
• 11:54
  But whatever Hezbollah's public position,
• 11:56
  Reuters says its stockpiles and fighting force
• 11:59
  have not been fully rebuilt.
• 12:01
  And to be clear,
• 12:02
  Hezbollah explicitly said it would not join renewed hostilities.
• 12:06
  Its media office told Reuters it was wary of
• 12:09
  giving Israeli leaders a justification to escalate in Lebanon,
• 12:13
  particularly
• 12:14
  because it feared seeing its supporters displaced all over again.
• 12:17
  Yes,
• 12:18
  they're so worried about their supporters.
• 12:20
  So the group is rebuilding,
• 12:21
  but its leadership is also worried about
• 12:23
  what another round of fighting could bring.
• 12:26
  Washington meanwhile,
• 12:27
  is trying to restrict the Iranian money supporting that effort.
• 12:31
  A State Department spokesman told Reuters
• 12:33
  that the US would continue squeezing Hezbollah's finances through sanctions
• 12:37
  and other measures.
• 12:39
  And that my friends,
• 12:40
  this is the PDB afternoon bulletin for Tuesday,
• 12:43
  the 27th of October.
• 12:44
  Now,
• 12:45
  if you have any questions or comments,
• 12:46
  just reach out to me at PDB@hefirsttv.com
• 12:50
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• 12:59
  I'm Mike Baker and I'll be back tomorrow.
• 13:01
  Until then,
• 13:02
  stay informed,
• 13:03
  stay safe,
• 13:04
  stay cool.
• 13:20
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• 13:20
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