The talks between the two military intelligence agencies began in the summer, after Moscow spent months refusing to open a humanitarian corridor into the town, including for the United Nations and the International Committee of the Red Cross, according to the French newspaper. GUR and GRU had already maintained regular contact on exchanges of prisoners of war and the bodies of the dead.
The operation itself was organized by Dmytro Lubinets, Ukraine's parliamentary human rights commissioner, and Russian ombudswoman Yana Lantratova. It was carried out under the auspices of the White House and presented as the result of mediation by US first lady Melania Trump.
Le Monde's sources urge caution in assessing her role. "It is unknown what exact role Washington played," the newspaper quotes an international source in Ukraine as saying.
Even if Melania Trump, like the UN and Pope Leo XIV, expressed alarm over the fate of Alyoshki's residents, it cannot be ruled out that Kyiv and Moscow, having reached agreement among themselves, wanted to please Donald Trump, Le Monde writes. "Having realized that he would not get the Nobel Peace Prize, Trump may have decided to try to get it for Melania," a source in Kyiv told the publication.
On October 23 the White House press service issued a release stating that Melania Trump had secured a ceasefire between Russia and Ukraine in the Alyoshki area. In a statement by the first lady cited in the document, she said that without her intervention it would have been impossible to deliver humanitarian aid to the town and evacuate elderly people. After the mission was completed, Lantratova and Lubinets thanked her for her mediation.
The ceasefire around Alyoshki was in force from the night of October 27 until 22:59 on Sunday, November 1. Ukraine's General Staff said Russia used the time to strengthen its positions and bring up ammunition.
Alyoshki is a small town on the occupied left bank of the Dnipro. About 24,000 people lived there before the full-scale war; by various estimates 1,700 to 2,000 residents remained before the evacuation, including at least several dozen children. After the destruction of the Kakhovka hydroelectric dam in June 2023 the town was almost completely flooded. In recent months it has been under blockade by Russian troops, and a lack of food has produced a humanitarian catastrophe. About 700 people were evacuated from Alyoshki in total: some were taken to Ukraine at their request, others to Russia.