Ceasefire in Oleschky: humanitarianism, handshakes and lasting mistrust

For the first time since the start of the war, an official representative of Ukraine is in a Russian-occupied city. Dmytro Lyubinetz, the Ukrainian human rights commissioner, and his Russian colleague, Yana Lantratova, arrived on Friday morning in the Ukrainian city of Oleshky, which has been occupied by Russia since March 2022. The aim of the joint mission is to offer evacuation to the people living in this city and to bring humanitarian aid to the city.

A humanitarian catastrophe has been raging in this city for months. The city is largely cut off from the outside world, the access roads are mined, there is no running water, no medicine and hardly any food. Of the former 24,000 inhabitants, between 1,700 and 2,000 people still live there.

Now Ukraine and Russia have agreed on a ceasefire limited to Oleshky from October 27th to November 1st. And it's holding up so far. It has also been absolutely quiet in neighboring Kherson since October 27th. During this ceasefire, aid supplies will be brought into the city and residents will be evacuated. According to Ukrainian Prime Minister Serhiy Koretskyj, 527 residents want to accept this offer and travel to the part of Ukraine controlled by Kyiv.

Together with his Russian colleague Jana Lantratova, Dmytro Ljubinetz answered journalists' questions in Oleschky. He also answered questions from Russian journalists in Ukrainian.

In June, Lyubinetz came under fire in his Ukrainian homeland for greeting Lantratova with a handshake on the sidelines of a prisoner exchange. The 37-year-old had recently taken office. In Ukraine it is frowned upon to shake hands with representatives of Belarus and Russia.

Ljubinetz is full of praise for his Russian colleague, who is “always available” for his authority. We are in contact with each other almost every day. It is also thanks to this regular exchange that reciprocity is no longer taken into account when handing over remains. Instead of insisting on equal numbers, each side now hands over as many bodies as it currently has available.

According to Dmytro Ljubinetz, it was also possible to set up a communication channel for the exchange of legal documents between the two countries. Therefore, Ukrainian citizens are now able to request documents and certificates in Russia through the Office of the Human Rights Commissioner.

Ukrainian society supports the efforts of the human rights commissioner Lyubinetz. Nevertheless, there are reservations about Jana Lantratova. As a member of parliament in Russia, she was involved, among other things, in implementing the law on “foreign agents” and tightening the law against alleged “false reports” about the Russian army. In 2024, the Ukrainian secret service SBU accused Lantratova of being involved in the deportation of Ukrainian children from Kherson.

The Ukrainian Foreign Ministry hopes that this ceasefire is just a first step towards more far-reaching agreements between Russia and Ukraine.

Realistically, the prospects of extending the ceasefire are slim. A glance at the smartphone app that warns of air strikes is enough: almost every five minutes an alarm is triggered about new possible Russian attacks.

Just on Thursday night, 15 people were killed in a Russian attack on a train station in Dnipro. Ukraine also attacked a Russian refinery in the Samara region for the first time in two weeks. On Thursday evening, several Moscow airports had to temporarily suspend operations due to attacking Ukrainian drones.