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Oleshky pause holds as fighting continues across Ukraine · THE DAILY BRIEF

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  Speaker 1: And to Ukraine now, where a localised ceasefire came into
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  Speaker 1: effect on Tuesday morning in the southern town of Oleshky.
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  Speaker 1: The White House says the truce was brokered by US
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  Speaker 1: First Lady Melania Trump in coordination with Russia's human rights commissioner.
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  Speaker 1: But elsewhere, there was no such pause. Both sides kept
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  Speaker 1: up attacks behind the lines.
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  Speaker 2: Overnight in Kiev... Russian missiles struck a university campus. Authorities
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  Speaker 2: say at least one person was killed and more than
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  Speaker 2: a dozen injured. The southern bridge, a key Dnipro river crossing,
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  Speaker 2: was also damaged in the attacks, as well as medical
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  Speaker 2: facilities and some apartment blocks. Overnight attacks have become commonplace
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  Speaker 2: in Ukraine over the course of the nearly five-year-long war.
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  Speaker 2: But in the south, something unusual was happening. Silence. A
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  Speaker 2: ceasefire in the Russian-occupied city of Aleshky in the Kherson region.
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  Speaker 2: The city has been cut off for months and under
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  Speaker 2: near-constant bombardment from both sides. Food and medical deliveries have
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  Speaker 2: been sporadic, roads are littered with landmines making escape dangerous,
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  Speaker 2: and most of those remaining are elderly. The White House
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  Speaker 2: says the cease-fire was brokered by U.S. First Lady Melania Trump.
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  Speaker 2: Under its terms, aid will be brought in, and residents
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  Speaker 2: who want to leave will be offered safe passage to
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  Speaker 2: either Russia or Ukraine. Both sides claim to be observing
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  Speaker 2: the truce. No fixed end date has been announced, though.
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  Speaker 2: Many Ukrainians are hesitant to believe Moscow will keep its
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  Speaker 2: side of the deal.
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  Speaker 3: Let's wait and see, because the enemy cannot be trusted,
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  Speaker 3: especially the Russians. Ceasefires have been announced in the past,
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  Speaker 3: yet they had absolutely no impact on the situation in Kherson.
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  Speaker 3: Kherson is shelled daily with every type of weaponry imaginable.
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  Speaker 2: While trust may be absent, the truce has given some
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  Speaker 2: hope that it could be a precedent for more lasting
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  Speaker 2: peace for war-weary Ukrainians.
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  Speaker 1: Let's now cross over to Rebecca Ritters, our correspondent in Kiev. Rebecca,
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  Speaker 1: what's the latest that you're hearing on the ceasefire there
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  Speaker 1: in Oleschki? Is it actually holding?
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  Speaker 4: Well, so far, Gerhard, reports have been positive. That ceasefire
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  Speaker 4: that took into effect and was announced to have come
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  Speaker 4: into effect by both sides at around 3am local time
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  Speaker 4: does appear from everything we hear to be holding a
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  Speaker 4: little more than 12 hours after it came into effect.
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  Speaker 4: So that is some very much needed positive news for Oleshki.
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  Speaker 4: And this is a city that has been under Russian
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  Speaker 4: occupation for since the very early days of the Russian
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  Speaker 4: full-scale invasion. And it's been pretty much bombarded or cut off,
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  Speaker 4: if you will, by Russian troops who haven't been allowing
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  Speaker 4: aid since about May. May was the last humanitarian drop
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  Speaker 4: that was made there. Since then, the roads, which are
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  Speaker 4: completely mined, have been attacked and workers have been attacked
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  Speaker 4: trying to get aid in with FPV drones. So, you know, really,
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  Speaker 4: it's a really dire situation. We've been hearing reports of people,
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  Speaker 4: their citizens, some 2,000 at least, we think, still living
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  Speaker 4: inside the city, that they've been eating leaves and grass,
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  Speaker 4: trying to kind of have something that they can put
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  Speaker 4: into their stomachs. They've been putting signs on their fences.
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  Speaker 4: saying that we're starving. This is a really dire humanitarian
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  Speaker 4: situation that has been unfolding there, and this certainly couldn't
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  Speaker 4: have come soon enough. All the people there, they've been
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  Speaker 4: without power, without water for three years. This is one
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  Speaker 4: of the worst-hit areas, an area that is really under
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  Speaker 4: severe humanitarian situations. So for those people, this hasn't come
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  Speaker 4: soon enough, Gerhard.
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  Speaker 1: Mm. Now, this is also an unusual agreement. What role
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  Speaker 1: is Melania Trump said to have played in getting it
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  Speaker 1: over the line?
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  Speaker 4: Yeah, it is a very rare sign of cooperation between
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  Speaker 4: the two sides. I can't remember the last time that
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  Speaker 4: we've seen something like this hold, if it indeed does. So,
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  Speaker 4: you know, that is, of course, seen as a positive step.
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  Speaker 4: It is reported, it is believed that Melania Trump had
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  Speaker 4: a great hand in this. It's believed that she heard
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  Speaker 4: about the situation in Aleshki while she was at a
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  Speaker 4: fundraiser in September and she's been working her routes of communication,
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  Speaker 4: if you will, between the two sides. You know, everyone
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  Speaker 4: will remember that Melania played a role in bringing back
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  Speaker 4: some Ukrainian children or having them repatriated to Ukraine that
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  Speaker 4: were being held in Russia. And she reopened those channels, reportedly,
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  Speaker 4: to try to get both sides or negotiating teams from
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  Speaker 4: both sides to come together. And if that's to be believed,
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  Speaker 4: then it certainly has been a success so far. We
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  Speaker 4: don't have a huge amount of details about her involvement yet, But, yeah,
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  Speaker 4: the White House is saying that Melania Trump was the
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  Speaker 4: broker in this deal.
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  Speaker 1: Now, at the same time, Kyiv was hit again overnight.
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  Speaker 1: What can you tell us about those attacks?
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  Speaker 4: Yeah, everyone hears the word ceasefire and wants to celebrate,
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  Speaker 4: and of course it is great, but it is an
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  Speaker 4: incredibly limited ceasefire, Gerhard. You heard some of it in
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  Speaker 4: the report that you just played before this interview. We
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  Speaker 4: were woken by those very, very loud ballistic missiles that
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  Speaker 4: came into Kiev around about 3am local time. The timing,
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  Speaker 4: you know, exactly the same time as the ceasefire was
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  Speaker 4: said to have come into effect is... you know, perhaps
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  Speaker 4: coincidence or perhaps not, but that, you know, another night
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  Speaker 4: of terror, certainly for the people in Kyiv and people
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  Speaker 4: in Kharkiv and other areas in the country that were
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  Speaker 4: once again bombarded. As you mentioned in the report, that
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  Speaker 4: has been happening near nightly, certainly lately, even in the
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  Speaker 4: day as well. So this is something that the people
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  Speaker 4: here are getting used to, but they're very, very tired, very,
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  Speaker 4: very fatigued. Last night, another... More than a dozen injuries.
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  Speaker 4: One person was killed. You heard their university was hit,
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  Speaker 4: as well as the Southern Bridge, causing chaos. No traffic
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  Speaker 4: able to cross there between the left and the right
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  Speaker 4: sides of the city. So lots of damage being done
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  Speaker 4: also to civilian infrastructure, even though Russia continues to say
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  Speaker 4: that it's targeting only military targets and the energy infrastructure,
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  Speaker 4: which is part of its strategy as we head towards
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  Speaker 4: the winter.
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  Speaker 1: Rebecca Ritter's there reporting from Kiev. Thank you, Rebecca.