Wire reporting: (AP, via Local 10)

Russian and Ukrainian human-rights officials accompanying a humanitarian convoy said Friday they had entered the Russian-held city of Oleshky in Ukraine’s Kherson region during a localized ceasefire^1,3,6,7.

The city, just inside occupied territory, has drawn attention after residents were cut off by fighting and mined roads and ran short of food and medicine, according to Associated Press reporting carried by U.S. stations^2,5.

Ukraine’s ombudsman, Dmytro Lubinets, and Russia’s human-rights commissioner, Yana Lantratova, are accompanying the mission, Meduza reported⁶. Lubinets, speaking as chief negotiator, said the convoy’s purpose was to get aid to residents, with particular attention to older people and people with disabilities, according to AP copy².

AP stations said the convoy included 25 buses, ambulances and other vehicles and had been assembled in Armyansk, about 85 kilometers (53 miles) south of Oleshky in occupied southern Ukraine, for a mission later Friday².

Meduza said the Ukrainian delegation reached Oleshky by traveling first to Gomel in Belarus, then flying to Anapa in Russia, then continuing overland, and that residents who want to leave occupied territory would return to Ukraine along the same route⁶.

Moscow and Kyiv have observed a truce in and around Oleshky since Tuesday while remaining engaged in the wider war that began with Russia’s full-scale invasion more than four and a half years ago, AP reported^2,7. Meduza said the sides agreed to halt fighting in Oleshky from Oct. 27 through Nov. 1, inclusive⁶.

A localized ceasefire and the aid mission were brokered by U.S. first lady Melania Trump, who led talks with Lubinets and Lantratova, AP stations reported². Meduza said she reportedly helped broker the agreement and that her press office said Newsmax journalists were accompanying the mission as observers⁶.

France 24 reported that Russia said its forces struck energy infrastructure in and around Kyiv on Friday as the convoy moved toward Oleshky with food and medical supplies⁸. Previous ceasefire talks have failed or truces have quickly collapsed, AP noted⁷.

It was not independently confirmed how many civilians would be evacuated or whether aid had reached every neighborhood inside the city^2,6.