Richard Connor | Darko Janjevic with AFP, AP, dpa, Reuters
Published 10/31/2026Published October 31, 2026
After Melania Trump reportedly brokered a localized truce, residents of Ukraine's Oleshky managed to leave the occupied city. Meanwhile, Kyiv claimed a hit on a Russian rocket fuel plant. DW has more.
Here is a roundup of events from Russia's war in Ukraine on Saturday, October 31:
IN PHOTOS: Evacuees reunite with family after fleeing Oleshky
Ukraine spent months demanding that Russia allow people to evacuate out of Oleshky in southern Ukraine, after food delivery supplies stopped earlier this year.
Hundreds of people made their way out on Saturday.
Wadephul says Europe and US are 'on the same side' on Russia
At a news conference after the G20 foreign ministers' meeting in Atlanta, DW correspondent Benjamin Alvarez Gruber asked German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul whether Sergey Lavrov's presence and the possibility of Russian President Vladimir Putin attending the G20 summit in Doral, Florida, in December signaled a normalization of relations with Russia.
Wadephul said the US and European countries were "on the same side."
"Speaking to the Russian Foreign Minister is not a concession we're making to Russia, but it is normal to speak," he said, adding that foreign ministers must be prepared to engage even with adversaries.
"You don't have to negotiate with partners, but you have to negotiate with somebody who has a different position and who's somehow also an adversary to freedom and to security in Europe. So it is necessary that we speak, and for that reason I think it was useful," Wadephul added.
The G20 foreign ministers skipped their traditional family photo at a meeting in Atlanta on Friday, amid objections from several European countries, Australia and Canada to appearing alongside Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov.
Wadephul said: "We are not in a position that it was necessary or useful or a good idea to have a family photo because in the very situation we are in, Russia does not really show an interest to share our values and to share our interests."
The US State Department removed the photo from the agenda to prevent it from becoming a distraction or a spectacle.
Zelenskyy in Istanbul for talks on Black Sea shipping
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has arrived in Istanbul for talks with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, with Black Sea shipping among the issues on the agenda.
"We're working to strengthen the protection of our people, our bilateral partnership with Türkiye, and real diplomatic prospects," Zelenskyy wrote on X, using the alternative spelling for Turkey.
The Ukrainian president also plans to meet Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew, the Istanbul-based Orthodox Christian leader.
US warns Russia of a 'mass casualty' plot to attack Moscow
The US embassy in Russia warned there was "a credible threat of a mass casualty event" at a historical site in southern Moscow.
"The US government is coordinating with appropriate Russian authorities on a response," the US embassy in Moscow said in a post on X.
The alleged plot would target the Tsaritsyno Museum Reserve, a sprawling complex of palaces and gardens built under the orders of Empress Catherine the Great in the late 18th century.
Russia's federal law enforcement agency, the FSB, said it received the warning and was doing "appropriate work" in response to it, according to Russian news agencies.
Ukraine says it hit Russian rocket fuel factory
Ukraine's military said it struck a factory producing solid rocket fuel in Russia's Rostov region, setting a warehouse ablaze and damaging four production workshops.
The attack on the Kamensky plant in Kamensk-Shakhtinsky involved drones and Neptune missiles, according to the Ukrainian account.
The military said the plant supplies fuel for ammunition used by Russia's Uragan, Smerch and Tornado-S multiple-launch rocket systems, as well as other missiles and air-launched weapons.
Ukraine also reported strikes on four Russian military supply depots in occupied parts of the Donetsk, Zaporizhzhia and Luhansk regions.
The claims have not been independently verified.
Ukraine welcomes civilians from Oleshky after complex evacuation effort
The first evacuees from Russian-occupied Oleshky have reached Ukrainian-controlled territory amid a localized ceasefire.
Oleshky, near the front line in the southern Kherson region, has been occupied by Russia since 2022. In recent weeks, the town has faced a severe humanitarian crisis.
Both sides have recently agreed to a localized ceasefire to extract the estimated 2,000 civilians still in Oleshky, down from its pre-invasion population of 24,000.
Moscow and Kyiv credited the US first lady, Melania Trump, with brokering the truce.
Residents were given a choice to go to Russia or travel via Belarus to the part of Ukraine controlled by Kyiv.
Ukraine's human rights ombudsman Dmytro Lubinets said the initiative required "an enormous amount of work."
He said evacuees included a 1-year-old baby and a 94-year-old resident of Oleshky. The evacuees brought pets, including dogs, cats, a parrot and a raccoon, according to Lubinets.
He expressed hope that the Oleshky arrangement can be replicated elsewhere.
The truce started on Tuesday and is due to end on Sunday night.
