Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said the Oleshky ceasefire shows that de-escalation steps with Russia are possible, while the US says there is growing interest for a truce in the Black Sea. Zelenskyy said the humanitarian operation in the Russian-occupied Ukrainian city of Oleshky “clearly demonstrates that de-escalation steps are possible when Russia is the one put in a position where it has to take steps toward de-escalation”. The Ukrainian president also said at a news conference with his Turkish counterpart, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, in Istanbul on Saturday: “Strong decisions are needed to bring peace. At every level, Russia must be sent signals that there is no alternative to peace and that support for Ukraine will not diminish. This is all the more important given that a humanitarian operation took place in Oleshky, in the Kherson region, over the past few days.”
In the US, the secretary of state said there was growing interest in the international community in facilitating a limited ceasefire in the Black Sea to ensure unfettered energy and grain shipments by Russia and Ukraine. Marco Rubio said the US was reviewing proposals by Turkey and India to get grain shipments moving, even as the US continued to press for a broader negotiated settlement of the war. There was growing interest – if not momentum – in partial deals such as halting attacks on ships carrying grain and, in some cases, energy in the Black Sea, Rubio said on Saturday. “This is threatening the world for food security and some energy security as well,” he told reporters in Atlanta after a two-day G20 foreign ministers’ meeting that involved Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov despite objections from European and Canadian leaders .
Zelenskyy said at the Istanbul news conference that he and Erdoğan had discussed the prospects of holding trilateral talks between Ukraine, Russia and the US in early November, as well as other possibilities “including ways to involve Türkiye and all of Europe”. Erdoğan, meanwhile, said attacks aimed at civilian vessels in the Black Sea were unacceptable, urging Russia and Ukraine to “act responsibly”. “We cannot accept these attacks under any circumstances, regardless of who carries them out or what justification is offered.” Talks aimed at restoring the safety of navigation in the Black Sea would continue, Erdoğan added. Zelenskyy accused Russia of making the situation in the Black Sea difficult.
In Ukraine, evacuees from Oleshky were reunited with loved ones after crossing into Ukrainian-held territory on Saturday amid the US-brokered localised ceasefire. Evacuees wrapped in Ukrainian flags stepped off buses at the Ukrainian-Belarusian border to be reunited with family members. Evacuees told Agence France-Presse that some residents had to eat grass and dogs to survive and that their rescue following a humanitarian truce was a “blessing”. “People were cooking grass. They’d grow it as there was nothing to eat,” said Valera, a 29-year-old former resident who did not give his last name. “Lots of people were blown up. There were piles of bodies on the roads, loads of cars. In short, it was brutal ... terrifying.” The truce in the southern Kherson region was expected to to continue until Sunday evening.
Ukraine’s military hit a major missile fuel producer in Russia’s Rostov region, causing a fire and damaging four production facilities, the Ukrainian general staff said on Saturday. The overnight attack on Kombinat Kamensky, a Russian state-owned chemical and defence enterprise in Kamensk-Shakhtinsky, involved both Ukrainian drones and its Neptune coastal missile system, it said on Telegram.
