Melania Trump is awarded state honour by President Zelensky in recognition of her work organising Ukraine front line evacuation

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has awarded US First Lady Melania Trump a state honour for her role in helping to organise a humanitarian evacuation from a frontline town last week.The presidential decree, dated November 2, cited her 'significant personal contribution' to humanitarian support for Ukraine and her work to help Ukrainian children, including those deported or forcibly moved from Russian-occupied territory.The award - the Order of Princess Olga, 1st class - honours women who have made exceptional contributions in spheres including science, education, culture and charitable work.Ukrainian officials have said Melania Trump played a pivotal role in organising the six-day ceasefire to evacuate civilians from the Russian-occupied southern Ukrainian town of Oleshky, which concluded on Sunday.It was the longest local pause in fighting since Russia's full-scale invasion in 2022. Nearly 800 people were evacuated, Melania Trump said.In a statement on Monday, Kyiv's General Staff said ​Russian forces had also used the truce to rotate troops, boost defences and improve battlefield logistics.'Under the ceasefire introduced for ​the humanitarian operation in Oleshky, units of the Defence Forces of Ukraine ensured that the ceasefire was ⁠observed and acted exclusively within the framework of the agreements reached,' it said on X.'The enemy, by contrast, used the humanitarian pause ​to improve its positions.' Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has awarded US First Lady Melania Trump a state honour for her role in helping to organise a humanitarian evacuation from a frontline town last week Ukrainian officials have said Melania Trump played a pivotal role in organising the six-day ceasefire to evacuate civilians from the Russian-occupied southern Ukrainian town of Oleshky, which concluded on Sunday Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that he did not have specific information on any movements, but that adjusting positions during ​a ceasefire was 'standard practice' and it was safe to assume Ukraine had done the same.Melania Trump skipped the White House's election night event on Tuesday as Republicans watched their grip on Congress slip, busying herself instead with her Russia-Ukraine peace mission. A White House source confirmed to the Daily Mail that the First Lady stayed away as President Trump and his aides gathered in the East Room to watch the results, where the mood turned defiant as Republican majorities faded. Melania Trump ignored election updates, only posting details on her social media about a planned event at the White House to highlight the ceasefire in Oleshky and surrounding areas.Representatives of Russia and Ukraine will attend the event in the White House's Grand Foyer on Thursday, an administration official confirmed to the Daily Mail. Melania Trump stayed off the campaign trail throughout the midterms, focusing instead on her own initiatives supporting women and children. The First Lady worked independently to broker the ceasefire talks between Russia and Ukraine, a source told the Daily Mail, and hailed the success of her efforts on Sunday. 'The situation in Oleshky is dire. Oleshky is a front-line war city on the brink of disaster,' Melania said in a statement. 'Oleshky's remaining population is comprised primarily of elderly residents who urgently need medical attention, medicine, food, and clean water.'The First Lady became personally involved in the ceasefire after attending the United Nations General Assembly in September and learning of the horrific conditions of the people there.'Residents who wish to evacuate will receive coordinated support and transportation to their preferred destination,' she detailed.'I anticipate some will want to go to Russia, and some to Ukraine.'Trump endorsed her efforts, telling reporters on Friday that she contacted both Ukrainian and Russian officials to begin the talks.'What she wants to do is save children. And that's her focus. Both sides are cooperating with her, so she's doing a very good job.'An estimated 2,000 people were still living in Oleshky when the temporary truce took hold. The First Lady also celebrated reports that Ukrainians were evacuating the city. Evacuees wrapped in blue and yellow Ukrainian flags stepped off buses late last week at the Ukrainian-Belarusian border where they were reunited with family members. 'The ceasefire across Oleshky and the surrounding Kherson region has provided residents with the freedom to move, access to food, clean water, medicine, plus a renewed sense of dignity without the constant threat of attack,' she wrote on Saturday. Residents of Oleshky react after being evacuated from their Russian-occupied hometown as they cross the Belarus-Ukraine border in Chernyhiv region, Ukraine Ukrainian serviceman Dmytro welcomes back his partner Larysa as evacuees from the Russian-occupied town of Oleshky Ukrainian medics assist a resident evacuated from the Russian-controlled city of Oleshky On Saturday, starved and exhausted Oleshky residents were greeted by elated relatives on the Ukraine-Belarus border after a complex journey through occupied Ukrainian territory and Russia.The ceasefire, which took effect on October 27, expired at 9pm ​GMT on Sunday. Despite the rare break, battles have raged ​on along the rest of the 1,200-km front line, where Russian forces are grinding forward in parts of eastern and southern Ukraine.In a video address ‌on Facebook, ⁠Ukraine's 34th Separate Marine Brigade warned residents of the Kherson region that there were reasons to expect an eruption of new hostilities after the ceasefire ended.Yaroslav Shanko, head of the Kherson City Military Administration, said there had been a drone strike in the city, which lies opposite Oleshky across the Dnipro River in Ukrainian-held territory. No casualties were reported.Kherson region Governor Oleksandr Prokudin said Russia had struck 16 settlements in Ukrainian-held ​parts of the region with artillery ​or air attacks in the ⁠24 hours up to 4am GMT on Monday.Russian human rights commissioner Yana Lantratova said fewer than 750 people were left behind after the evacuations, adding that there would be ​monthly humanitarian aid deliveries to the town.In a briefing in Kyiv on Monday, Ukrainian human-rights ombudsman Dmytro ​Lubinets said both ⁠sides had upheld their obligations. He declined to say how many people were evacuated to Ukrainian-held territory and Russia, or how many had chosen to remain in occupied territory.Lubinets also said he and Lantratova were asking the US First Lady to facilitate future efforts in other war-hit areas ⁠of Russian-occupied ​Ukraine.More than 50 people could be trapped under rubble in a Ukrainian village where a Russian attack killed 33 people, President Zelensky said Tuesday, in what he called one of Moscow's worst attacks of the war.Russia pummelled Ukraine on Monday and Tuesday after the rare truce between the enemies ended at the weekend, with the strikes dampening hopes for a breakthrough at US-led negotiations set for next week in Abu Dhabi.Rescue operations were ongoing in the frontline southeastern village of Komyshuvakha, where Russian forces had struck a former school building that Ukraine said was being used to distribute aid every Monday.'Just one strike killed 33 people. Five people were rescued and more than 50 may still be trapped under the rubble,' Zelensky said, describing it as 'one of the largest Russian killings of this war'.The United Nations' rights mission in Ukraine slammed the attack.'Either the Russian armed forces knew that there was a humanitarian distribution taking place, or they failed to take the most basic steps to find out what was happening in this village,' said Danielle Bell, the head of the rights mission.A Russian strike on a hospital in Kharkiv also wounded dozens Tuesday, Zelensky said, with Ukrainian authorities reporting another four dead across the country.Zelensky, the Kremlin and Washington confirmed their negotiators will meet in Abu Dhabi on November 10-11 for the first talks between all three sides since February.Visiting Berlin on Tuesday, Zelensky said he hoped that the gathering will pave the way for his meeting with Russia's Vladimir Putin.'We are counting on the fact that work in this format and our other diplomatic steps will open the way to a trilateral format at the level of leaders,' he told reporters.Zelensky has consistently pushed for a meeting with Putin - who sent Russian troops over the border in 2022, unleashing Europe's worst war since World War II.Putin, however, has repeatedly refused face-to-face talks with Zelensky.Speaking alongside Zelensky, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said he saw no sign that Russia was willing to engage seriously in ending its invasion.'It is important that Russia finally and seriously engages in negotiations about a ceasefire and a subsequent peace agreement,' he said.'I do not see that happening so far.'Kyiv and its European allies have feared US President Donald Trump - who signed a diesel deal with Putin recently and who has criticised Zelensky - is siding with the Kremlin.Merz said that if Trump invites Putin to the G20 summit in Miami then Zelensky should be invited, too.'If Ukraine is to be discussed, then the president of Ukraine must be at the table.'Last week's ceasefire in Kherson - brokered by Melania Trump - had provided a glimmer of hope that a negotiated end to the conflict could be on the horizon.Zelensky said Kyiv had offered Russia an extension of the ceasefire, but shortly afterwards Moscow unleashed deadly strikes.'We proposed to Russia to prolong and expand the ceasefire,' Zelensky said.'But in response, we got this, this kind of attack. New shelling, new strikes, new killings.'Merz said that while the Kherson ceasefire could have served as 'a model' for other truces, 'Russia has so far stubbornly refused this'.'Our message to Russia is therefore clear: it is time to bring this war to an end,' Merz, who leads one of Ukraine's main military and financial backers, said.Putin has repeatedly said Russia does not want a temporary ceasefire in Ukraine and that Moscow intends to seize the rest of east Ukraine by force.Repeated Russian strikes on Ukraine's energy infrastructure in recent weeks have raised fears of another difficult winter ahead, and on Tuesday Kyiv mayor Vitali Klitschko said supplies in the capital were 'extremely difficult'.Trump's special envoy Steve Witkoff said US negotiators would also meet European and NATO officials on Wednesday in Brussels.Representatives from Ukraine, the United States, France, Germany, Britain, NATO and the World Bank will take part, the European Commission said.In Russia, Moscow mayor Sergei Sobyanin said nearly 500 drones heading towards the capital region were destroyed.The strikes came as Britain and France announced that around 2,800 troops from 10 European countries will stage military drills in Poland this month in support of Ukraine.