Melania Trump adviser shares INSIDE LOOK at ceasefire agreement
Marc Beckman, a senior adviser to Melania Trump, joined Fox & Friends Weekend to discuss the first lady’s humanitarian work in Ukraine. Beckman described how Melania Trump helped secure a ceasefire in Oleshky, enabling vital aid deliveries and the evacuation of elderly residents. He also addressed her other initiatives, including the White House “Be Best” campaign.
A temporary ceasefire in the Ukrainian front-line city of Oleshky, which first lady Melania Trump described as being on the “brink of disaster,” took effect Tuesday.
The halt in fighting began at approximately 3 a.m. local time. It was part of a humanitarian operation “being carried out with the mediation and coordination of U.S. first lady Melania Trump, in cooperation with Yana Lantratova, Russia’s commissioner for human rights,” according to Dmytro Lubinets, the Ukrainian Parliament’s commissioner for human rights.
“The situation in Oleshky is dire. Oleshky is a front-line war city on the brink of disaster,” Trump said in a statement last week. “Oleshky’s remaining population is comprised primarily of elderly residents who urgently need medical attention, medicine, food, and clean water.
“The people of Oleshky have limited electricity, live amid mined roads, and endure regular military attacks. It was abundantly clear that without my intervention, the possibility to bring humanitarian aid into the city and to evacuate the elderly would be impossible,” she added.
First lady Melania Trump, left, and civilians being evacuated from Oleshky, Ukraine, in October 2022 during the early days of the Russia-Ukraine war. (Umit Bektas/Reuters; Alexander Ermochenko/Reuters)
The White House said Ukraine and Russia had “agreed to temporarily stop all military action in Oleshky to allow for humanitarian aid to enter and to prepare a civilian evacuation through a designated safe passageway.”
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“Non-military, civilian leaders from both countries will work together to visit Oleshky residents in their homes and determine the level of assistance they require. Residents who wish to evacuate will receive coordinated support and transportation to their preferred destination. I anticipate some will want to go to Russia, and some to Ukraine,” Trump said.
During an appearance on Fox & Friends Weekend, senior adviser Marc Beckman said the arrangement came after weeks of mediation involving Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
Russia’s Defense Ministry confirmed the pause Tuesday in a message posted on Telegram: “In relation to the conduct of the humanitarian operation in the area of the settlement of Oleshky, Kherson region, the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation have ceased fire in the Kherson direction.”
Russian forces have controlled Oleshky since the opening days of the February 2022 invasion of Ukraine, Reuters reported.
Before the war, the city was home to roughly 24,000 people. That population has since fallen to only a few thousand, according to the news agency.
In this undated image from video provided by the Ukrainian 34th Separate Marine Brigade “Borysfen” on Sept. 22, 2026, smoke rises from a residential neighborhood in the Russian-occupied city of Oleshky in the Kherson region of Ukraine. (Ukrainian 34th Separate Marine Brigade “Borysfen” via AP)
Elsewhere, new strikes hit a bridge and subway infrastructure in Kyiv on Tuesday, Ukraine’s capital, Reuters reported.