The Latest: Many states deciding control of the Senate are seeing a big boost in early voting

Voter turnout is soaring compared with the last midterm election in many of the states that are expected to decide control of the U.S. Senate, according to an Associated Press analysis of early voting two weeks before Election Day.

Advocates for greater voter identification requirements are pursuing a new approach in some states: a mandate to place driver’s license or partial Social Security numbers on mail-in ballots. Variations of the voter ID proposals are being decided in the midterm elections in California, Colorado and Nevada — three states where conservative activists collected petition signatures to bypass Democratic-led legislatures and place the issue directly before voters.

Trump must sit for a deposition in his defamation lawsuit against the BBC by Dec. 11, a federal judge said, after the broadcaster’s lawyers accused him of delaying his testimony. The judge warned that, unless the discovery period is extended, Trump could face sanctions including dismissal of his lawsuit if he fails to answer questions from the BBC’s lawyers under oath.

Here's the latest:

President Donald Trump wrapped up after nearly 100 minutes on stage in Sioux City, Iowa, boosting Republican candidates who face tight races this midterm election.

“Let’s go out and do what we do best, which is to win,” Trump said, thanking Iowans for their support. He did his usual dance moves on the way out the door.

Former Vice President Kamala Harris spoke to a cheering crowd Thursday evening as she joined a chorus of prominent Democrats throwing their weight behind Mississippi Democratic Senate candidate Scott Colom.

Harris hit on major concerns for Mississippi voters, like healthcare cuts and the cost of living.

“It’s time to turn that anger into action,” Harris told supporters.

Hundreds turned out to the rally, which took place in Colom’s hometown of Columbus, Miss. Colom, a district attorney, is running against Republican Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith.

Supporters chanted “Mississippi matters” and held signs reading, “pick a new senator,” referencing a viral Colom ad condemning Hyde-Smith for saying, “you know you have so many proteins to choose from,” about to consumers upset over beef prices.

As the race heats up, Trump is also set to campaign alongside Hyde-Smith in Corinth, Mississippi, on Monday.

Candidates at the top of Iowa’s Republican ticket joined Trump on stage to get a picture and give a quick plug, both of them locked in tight races.

Republican nominee for governor Zach Lahn praised Trump, and called it “an honor” to join him on stage.

“We are here to defend the culture of the United States of America, and Donald Trump is defending that culture,” Lahn said.

Rep. Ashley Hinson, locked in a battle for U.S. Senate with Democratic state Rep. Josh Turek, took her time to slam the Democrat and urge voters “not to give him that promotion” and to “keep Iowa Iowa.”

Trump claimed the value of these accounts more than doubled in the past year under his leadership.

But a retirement analysis by Fidelity Investments for the first three months of 2026 found that the accounts grew by about 11% from the same period in 2025.

Trump asked people at the rally to do one thing for him: “Get ready to vote and then take a look at your 401(k) and what we’ve done for you. And then vote.”

“There’s not a person in this room that’s going to vote against us because your 401(k)s have more than doubled in a period of a year,” he said.

That’s what he told the reporters who accompanied him to Sioux City for his fourth rally this week.

Hundreds of people filled the rally venue, the local Sioux Gateway Airport. Air Force One flew overhead before landing.

“Well, thank you very much. I love this state,” Trump said to open the rally. “I know you’re not all farmers, but I love farmers.”

He urged people to vote.

Former Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin campaigned for Nevada Republican Gov. Joe Lombardo on Thursday, encouraging supporters to call their friends and get them to vote.

“It’s time for us to go to work,” Youngkin told a crowd at a country-themed club in Las Vegas.

Lombardo is fighting off a challenge from Democratic candidate and current Attorney General Aaron Ford in one of the most closely watched governor races in the country. National politicians and potential 2028 presidential hopefuls have swooped into the battleground state to campaign for their party’s candidate ahead of the midterms.

Youngkin labeled Lombardo’s opponent as “soft on crime,” while highlighting the former Las Vegas-area sheriff’s career in law enforcement.

Lombardo said in 2022, only 54% of registered voters in Nevada participated in the election. He encouraged supporters to make phone calls and get more people to vote.

“We are a razor-thin state,” Lombardo said. “We are considered a purple state. Every vote matters.”

The president will take the stage in Sioux City, Iowa, where he is campaigning for congressional Republicans and GOP Senate nominee Ashley Hinson, who is locked in a tight election campaign.

Several hundred supporters have been waiting for more than two hours in an airplane hangar at Sioux Gateway Airport near the mini-metro hub of Republican-heavy western Iowa.

The audience cheered when Air Force One flew low past the event venue before Trump landed.

It’s the first of two 11th-hour campaign trips Trump is making to Iowa, where he has won comfortably every time he has run for president, but where congressional races, the governorship and the Senate race are viewed as competitive.

Trump is scheduled to campaign on the opposite side of the state in northeast Iowa with a Nov. 1 rally in Dubuque.

Data collected by The Associated Press shows that more than 20 million U.S. voters had cast early ballots as of Thursday, less than two weeks before the Nov. 3 midterm elections.

In statistics collected from 46 states, the figure now also includes early vote totals from Louisiana and Washington.

The total is equal to just over a third of all early votes cast ahead of the previous midterm elections in 2022, and roughly 21% of the early votes received for the 2024 presidential election.

Texas, home to a hotly contested U.S. Senate race, led with 2.36 million ballots, with California next at 2.32 million.

Voter turnout, compared to the last midterm election, has particularly soared in many states which are expected to decide control of the Senate.

Republican Ashley Hinson launched her remarks to hundreds of Trump supporters at a rally in Sioux City, Iowa, by describing her phone calls with the president.

“I’m not sure, frankly, that he’s always happy when we’re talking because I ask him for a lot of things for Iowa when we’re on the phone,” she said. “And that’s exactly what you would expect me to do, right, as your next United States senator.”

Hinson, who currently serves in the U.S. House, faces Democrat Josh Turek in Iowa’s competitive and costly race for Senate. While Hinson said she’d be Trump’s top ally when she kicked off her campaign a year ago, she’s increasingly taken positions that break with the White House.

It’s a balancing act many Republicans have had to do as high gas and grocery prices and an unpopular war in Iran frustrate voters.

Trump will speak to Iowans in the state’s most conservative district to try to boost turnout.

Democratic Sen. Richard Blumenthal announced a new inquiry into how Space X’s Starlink and Starshield technologies were slowed down for Ukraine’s defense systems, exposing the country to incoming Russian missile attacks they could not quickly deter.

Blumenthal’s letter to Elon Musk and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth comes after reporting from The Wall Street Journal about the slowdown.

“Whether that change was directed by the White House, DoD, or SpaceX, the episode raises urgent questions,” he wrote.

Separately, Republican Sen. Thom Tillis implored those involved to “raise your hand” if they were responsible. “Otherwise, let’s get this resolved,” he said on X.

The vice president’s midterm rally is scheduled for 4 p.m. Monday at the steel fabricating firm Haas Metal Engineering’s plant in north Topeka, with Vance scheduled to speak at 5:15 p.m., the Republican National Committee said.

Vance’s visit comes a week after Trump held a rally in Wichita to boost Marshall’s chances of winning a tossup race against Democratic challenger Adam Hamilton that’s become the most expensive contest in state history. Vance also headlined a Sept. 14 rally in the Kansas City suburb of Olathe.

Republican groups have so far committed to spending $26 million on television and digital advertising through the election, according to the ad-tracking firm AdImpact. That’s offsetting Marshall’s lackluster fundraising and bringing the GOP’s total to $32 million. However, Hamilton and Democratic groups have committed to spending $38 million, bringing the total ad spending for both sides to $71 million.

The tight contest is even more notable because no Democrat has won a Senate seat in Kansas since 1932. That 94-year streak of one-party dominance is the nation’s longest.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth is reiterating that troops cannot use “nonpublic information” to make bets on prediction markets.

“Our enemies watch movements in these markets,” Hegseth wrote in a memo dated Tuesday and reviewed by The Associated Press. “When an American Service member, intelligence professional, or other Department civilian engages in a financial transaction on a military outcome, they create a signal.”

The document stressed that troops are forbidden from using both classified and nonpublic unclassified information to make trades on platforms like Polymarket and Kalshi.

It says violators could be subject to both administrative punishment as well as criminal charges under the Uniform Code of Military Justice or federal law.

In April, a U.S. Special Forces soldier involved in the military operation to capture then-Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro was charged with using classified information about the mission to win more than $400,000 on Polymarket.

The memo was reported earlier by CBS News.

The president, during a gaggle with reporters before departing for a campaign rally, confirmed that the military version of the Starlink satellite service offered by SpaceX is once again working at optimal speeds for Ukraine.

The Wall Street Journal reported earlier on Thursday that SpaceX founder Elon Musk agreed to lift restrictions on Starlink for Ukraine. Trump demurred when asked if he requested Musk to lift the cap.

“You know whether I called or whether somebody else called doesn’t make any difference,” Trump said. “I guess the bottom line, he put it back.”

The speed restriction disrupted front-line operations and left Ukraine more exposed to Russia’s jet-powered Shahed drones, which fly at more than 400 kph (250 mph).

The State Department is renewing three fellowship programs designed to diversify the ranks of the U.S. foreign service that had been partially or fully suspended last year amid deep cuts to the diplomatic corps.

The department and Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Landau announced Thursday that the Pickering, Rangel and Payne fellowships for graduate students wanting to pursue careers in the foreign service would return with higher stipends and living expense payments than had been previously offered.

The suspension of the programs -- named for six-time Ambassador Thomas Pickering and the late former congressmen Charles Rangel and Donald Payne — had been criticized by many in Congress.

The fellowships will resume at a lower level of enrollment and it was not immediately clear from the department’s statements if the criteria for acceptance had substantially changed from those in the past.

Todd Blanche was referring to a lawsuit the administration filed to force Los Angeles County to set aside ballots from 20,000 people across California that the Trump administration says may not be citizens. California officials say that’s impossible at this late date and that their quick checks have shown many appear to indeed be citizens.

Blanche said there may be similar cases in other states. “Whether we’re going to do something before the election, I don’t want to get ahead of the civil lawyers working on those cases,” he added after an appearance in Virginia.

Reporters asked the Attorney General whether the Department of Justice would challenge certification of the election. Blanche said that, while he couldn’t say such a thing could never happen, “it is not DOJ’s intention to and it’s never our intention to improperly interfere with elections or the state certification process.”

Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes and Secretary of State Adrian Fontes, both Democrats, filed the lawsuit. They claim Maricopa County Recorder Justin Heap, a Republican, is refusing to restore voting eligibility to 25 people who investigators have determined are U.S. citizens.

Heap initially suspected them of being noncitizens and revoked their eligibility.

The complaint says that unless those affected have their voter registration status restored immediately, they risk being denied the right to vote in this year’s midterm elections.

In a statement issued Thursday, Heap said his office has been “trying to restore these voters for weeks” but has been denied the proper documentation to do so by Mayes and the county attorney.

The Trump administration and some Republican officials have prioritized finding noncitizens on state voter rolls this year, but many people initially flagged in those investigations have turned out to be U.S. citizens.

Trump said Thursday that Vivek Ramaswamy, the Republican nominee for Ohio governor, should keep running a controversial ad featuring the estranged mother of Democratic opponent Amy Acton, posting on social media that it was “hitting pay dirt.”

Trump also denounced Ohio Republican Gov. Mike DeWine, who criticized the ad as “deeply, deeply troubling” earlier in the day. Acton previously served in DeWine’s administration as a health official. Her mother lost custody of Acton and her brother after her husband — the children’s stepfather — was indicted for raping Acton.

“He strongly suggested that Vivek should, ‘take down the Ad,’” Trump wrote. “He probably wants a Dumocrat to win, and certainly doesn’t want someone who will do a much better job than he is capable of doing. I suggested, on the other hand, that Vivek should keep it up, and let everyone listen to the mother of a defective, dishonest, and incapable Candidate, explain how the daughter is a DISASTER who, uncontrollably, lies, cheats, and steals!”

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez held a rally with Maine Senate candidate Troy Jackson on Thursday in which hundreds of attendees cheered her calls to expand healthcare and get the U.S. out of Iran.

Ocasio-Cortez is stumping for progressive candidates in the run-up to the midterm elections. Jackson is running against five-term Republican Sen. Susan Collins. He and Ocasio-Cortez dedicated a lot of the event to calls for changing America’s priorities from foreign conflicts to domestic cost of living issues.

Ocasio-Cortez said the nation’s spending priorities are leaving working people behind by focusing on war.

“How are we going to afford Iran, how are we are going afford Gaza, when our people back home can’t eat, can’t afford healthcare, can’t afford to build a bridge to get to work,” Ocasio-Cortez said.

Jackson also took a jab at Collins for appearing with retired Sen. Joe Manchin, a former Democrat who became an independent, in Lewiston on Wednesday.

The Trump administration has hit 61 current and former Bolivian and Colombian officials, judges and lawmakers and their families with travel bans for alleged corruption and narcotrafficking.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Thursday he had taken the step to further efforts by the U.S., Colombia and Bolivia to crack down on drug trafficking throughout the Western Hemisphere. The sanctions will revoke any current visas those targeted may hold and deny any future applications.

They apply to 40 Bolivians, including two sitting members of parliament, a former attorney general and a number of judicial and police officials, and 21 Colombians, including a current mayor and several former lawmakers.

Rubio said the sanctions target foreign nationals “who, through corruption or narcotrafficking activities, undermine democratically elected governments in our hemisphere -- regardless of their political affiliation.”

The South Carolina Republican senator says that’s what it will take to express her thoughts to the president about his waiver of the bill named for her late brother, Lindsey Graham.

Trump campaigned in the state for Darline Graham on Wednesday, as she seeks a full term replacing her brother.

She rode back to Washington with the president afterward “because I was asked to” but told reporters Thursday in Columbia that she didn’t bring up the waiver because “there were other people on the plane,” adding, “That’s a private conversation.”

Graham helped ensure Senate passage of the sweeping new sanctions package targeting the Russian economy, which Trump signed into law but paused last week. On Saturday, she said she intended to discuss Trump’s decision, with which she disagreed.

Calley Means, a top Make America Healthy Again adviser to the Trump administration, has resigned from his role just days ahead of the midterm elections.

Means said he “leaves with tremendous respect” for Trump and Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. He did not elaborate on the reasons for his departure.

“The past two years have seen historic policy and cultural change to confront the chronic disease crisis and healthcare incentives that profit from us being sick,” he said. “This movement is in the first inning and just getting started.”

Means was hired as a White House adviser early in the second Trump administration. He used that perch to attack the nation’s leading physician groups, federal agencies and government scientists, claiming they only protect their own interests in the nation’s $4.9 trillion-a-year industry.

Vice President JD Vance stopped his speech and led the audience in prayer after a person in the risers behind him appeared to collapse on Thursday.

As emergency workers responded during a rally in North Platte, Nebraska, Vance asked those “who are of the praying type” to join him in prayer. Vance, a Catholic, crossed himself and recited the Lord’s Prayer as some in the crowd folded their hands and joined him. Vance also asked his staff to send a doctor.

“Always in moments like this, I try to pray as the Lord taught us to pray,” Vance said.

After the prayer, Vance walked into the risers and knelt down as the person was being helped. He later returned to the podium to finish his remarks.

Trump on Thursday accused LeBron James of disrespecting the United States after the NBA star appeared to continue his warm-ups while the national anthem was performed before Philadelphia’s season opener on Tuesday.

“I said right from the beginning that he’s no good, a TOTAL DISGRACE,” Trump said of James in a social media post sharing the video. “LeBron James should apologize to all of those Great American Warriors and Heroes who died for the American Flag, and all that our Country stands for!”

James appeared to practice a golf swing and jump shot as The Star-Spangled Banner was performed at Tuesday’s game in New York. James, starting his first season with Philadelphia, was lined up alongside teammates who mostly stood still during the anthem.

Trump and James have been critical of each other for years, occasionally trading public swipes.

The order came as the BBC’s lawyers complained that Trump had delayed his appearance. Attorney Charles Tobin said that, with two months left in the discovery period, “We still haven’t been able to depose the plaintiff.”

He noted there was an agreed-upon date of Oct. 16, but Trump canceled it for a “matter of national importance.” Tobin said Trump was in fact campaigning in Georgia.

“He was participating in party politics and prioritized that over sitting for the deposition,” Tobin said.

U.S. Magistrate Judge Enjoliqué Lett said Trump must sit for a deposition by Dec. 11, or face sanctions up to dismissal of his lawsuit — unless the discovery period was extended past Dec. 18.

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The Trump administration has faced numerous questions about interruptions to the Elon Musk-made satellite internet system that Ukraine has relied on to counter Russian attacks.

In Cincinnati on Thursday, Vice President JD Vance was asked about Musk’s involvement in the slowdown of Starlink and Starshield in Ukraine and whether it warranted an investigation.

“I think that fundamentally, Elon Musk runs a private corporation,” Vance told reporters. “And I think it’s completely understandable that he doesn’t want to get in the middle of what is a war between two state actors without the United States government effectively directing him on what to do.”

Vance continued: “So I don’t think this is about Elon. I think it’s fundamentally what is America’s policy in Ukraine and Russia going to be.”

Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, meanwhile, have said this week that the U.S. didn’t order or direct any throttling of network access in Ukraine.

Progressive Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is in Maine on Thursday to campaign for Democrat Troy Jackson, whose Senate bid is critical for the party to take control of the chamber.

Jackson is running against five-term incumbent Republican Sen. Susan Collins. She campaigned with retired former Democratic-turned-independent Sen. Joe Manchin in the state on Wednesday.

Ocasio-Cortez’s event with Jackson is at a theater in Portland on Thursday and is billed as a “Students vs. Billionaires” town hall.

Ocasio-Cortez has also campaigned for Abdul El-Sayed, who is running for Senate in Michigan, another state that's key to Democrats’ efforts to flip the Senate.

Ohio’s governor has denounced a controversial ad featuring the estranged mother of Dr. Amy Acton, taking sides with the Democratic candidate for governor and former member of his Cabinet over her Republican rival, Vivek Ramaswamy.

At a gaggle with reporters at the Statehouse in Columbus, DeWine called the ad “deeply, deeply troubling.”

“It’s wrong to run this ad,” he said. “I would urge Ramaswamy’s campaign to take this down.”

DeWine’s remarks place him at odds with Ramaswamy, whom he has endorsed. The biotech entrepreneur and 2024 presidential candidate has taken responsibility for the 60-second video, which has drawn bipartisan rebukes, and is spending $4 million to broadcast it online and on TV.

The vice president laid out concerns about horserace polling and urged Republicans to tune them out because it could dampen enthusiasm among Trump voters.

“Obviously, you never know what the final outcome is going to be,” Vance told reporters on Thursday in Cincinnati, adding: “it’s important for everybody to remember that sometimes these polls actually have this, this demotivating effect on our voters.”

He cited some polls in the 2020 and 2024 presidential races that turned out to be highly inaccurate.

“But I talk to people, and I do think they have the effect of demotivating our voters, which is why I encourage people: ignore the polls, run like we’re down, and try to make the best case that we can,” Vance said. “Eventually, of course, the American people make the decision.”

Virginia state Sen. L. Louise Lucas, one of the state’s most powerful Democrats, was charged on Thursday in connection with what federal authorities alleged was a role leading a criminal enterprise that acquired and distributed large quantities of marijuana and laundered the proceeds.

An indictment unsealed on Thursday charged Lucas and six other defendants, including several of her relatives, the Department of Justice said in a statement ahead of a news conference scheduled for 10 a.m.

Lucas surrendered on Thursday, a Justice Department spokesperson said.

The charges came after the FBI searched Lucas’ hometown office and a cannabis shop in which she has a stake in May. At the time of the search, the 82-year-old Lucas — who has been a vocal critic of the Trump administration — characterized it as an attempt to intimidate her.

“This is the circus we always expected it to be, and we will wait for further details to have a more specific response,” said Brian Woolfolk, chief counsel for the L. Louise Lucas Legal Defense Fund.

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Vice President JD Vance speaks to reporters before boarding Air Force Two, at Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport, in Hebron, Ky., Thursday, Oct. 22, 2026, en route to a campaign rally in Nebraska. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin, Pool)

FILE - Virginia Senate President pro tempore Louise Lucas, D-Portsmouth, listens to debate on the Senate floor, Feb. 17, 2026, in Richmond, Va. (AP Photo/Ryan M. Kelly, File)

President Donald Trump speaks at a campaign rally at the T. Ed Garrison Arena, Wednesday, Oct. 21, 2026, in Pendleton, S.C. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson)

President Donald Trump speaks in the Oval Office of the White House, Tuesday, Oct. 20, 2026, in Washington, as Vice President JD Vance listens. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)

President Donald Trump speaks at a campaign rally at Pitt–Greenville Airport, Tuesday, Oct. 20, 2026, in Greenville, N.C. (AP Photo/Matt Ramey)

WASHINGTON (AP) — First lady Melania Trump has brokered an upcoming ceasefire between Russia and Ukraine in the war-ravaged Ukrainian city of Oleshky to allow for humanitarian aid and the evacuation of civilians, the White House announced on Friday.

The localized ceasefire is set to begin on Oct. 29, with the American first lady saying in a news release that the situation there is “on the brink of disaster.”

The White House said Melania Trump had initiated the discussions and that she and a representative worked directly with Russian and Ukrainian leadership to define the terms of the ceasefire.

Ukraine’s lead negotiator for the agreement thanked Melania Trump for her involvement and said the deal would be “extremely challenging to implement.”

“Under our agreement: first a ceasefire will be put in place; second, humanitarian aid will be delivered to Oleshky; and third, civilians will be allowed to move freely out of Oleshky,” Dmytro Lubinets, Ukraine’s human rights ombudsman, said in a video message posted online. “The operation will be carried out gradually and is extremely challenging to implement. I will therefore keep Ukrainian society informed and share the results of the operation.”

Russia’s chief of the general staff, Gen. Valery Gerasimov, said Russian forces “will cease fire on the Kherson axis” starting at 4 a.m. Tuesday Moscow time “in connection with the humanitarian operation near Oleshky.” The Russian forces will also carry out “engineering reconnaissance” and ensure “safe movement of the humanitarian convoy” into the city, Gerasimov said.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov also said Moscow was grateful to the first lady and that effort was discussed during the latest call between Russian President Vladimir Putin and President Donald Trump, he said.

Peskov said "those who want to leave it would be able to do so.” He would not say whether those who evacuate will be taken to Russia- or Ukraine-held territory. He also demurred when asked how long the evacuation will last, saying only it would likely take several days.

Melania Trump has made helping children in conflict one of her signature issues and hosted a U.N. Security Council meeting on the issue earlier this year. She has written Putin to work on efforts to reunite families with children who have been displaced by the war.

“What she wants to do is save children, and that’s her focus,” the president said of the first lady during a question-and-answer exchange with journalists in Washington.

The development comes as tensions have increased to new highs between the Trump administration and Ukraine’s government. Kyiv has faced restrictions on the satellite internet system that it relies on to knock down Russian attacks, with Trump and other top U.S. officials sending mixed messages about who was responsible for throttling the Elon Musk-made Starshield system.

Trump also has recently waived new Russian sanctions, reached an agreement with Russia to import diesel and pushed Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to make a deal to end the war that began in February 2022. In renewed efforts to revive the peace process, Trump envoy Steve Witkoff traveled to Norway this week for talks with Zelenskyy before meeting with Putin in St. Petersburg, Russia.

Zelenskyy did not mention the ceasefire in Oleshky during a remote appearance at the Hudson Institute, a Washington think tank. He did note that American Patriot missile interceptors were still on hold and Starshield and Starlink speed limits were still in place.

He also spoke of the importance of the United States to renewed diplomatic efforts to end the war, including a possible joint meeting with Trump and Putin.

Food and medical supplies have been scarce for months in Oleshky, which sits on the Dnipro River that separates Ukrainian forces from the city’s Russian occupiers. There is no electricity, heat or running water. Roads leading from town are mined and dotted with burned-out cars. Drones buzz overhead.

Once a city of about 24,000 residents, Oleshky was captured by Moscow’s forces on the first day of their full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. Its buildings were shelled and burned, and its infrastructure damaged. In June 2023, floodwaters inundated the city after the Kakhovka Dam collapsed from an explosion that an Associated Press investigation found was likely caused by the Russian military. Hundreds of residents were killed.

Those left in the city along Ukraine’s southeastern front face death from hunger or disease as another harsh winter looms. Ukraine has appealed repeatedly for a local ceasefire to organize evacuations. Russia, as the occupying power, is obligated by international law to ensure civilians under its control have what they need to survive.

Melania Trump said in the White House news release that civilian leaders from Ukraine and Russia will visit Oleshky residents to determine the level of assistance they require.

“Residents who wish to evacuate will receive coordinated support and transportation to their preferred destination,” she said. “I anticipate some will want to go to Russia, and some to Ukraine.”

Melania Trump also said “an impartial American media organization” will accompany and document Russian and Ukrainian teams on the ground throughout the process.

"This will play a significant role in ensuring that the wishes of each family are faithfully respected,” she said.

The statement did not identify the media organization.

Associated Press writers Seung Min Kim and Konstantin Toropin in Washington, Volodymyr Yurchuk in Kyiv, Ukraine, and Dasha Litvinova in Tallinn, Estonia, contributed to this report.

President Donald Trump speaks with reporters before departing on Marine One from the South Lawn of the White House, Friday, Oct. 23, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

FILE - First lady Melania Trump speaks in the Rose Garden of the White House, Oct. 19, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein, File)

In this undated image from video provided by the Ukrainian 34th Separate Marine Brigade "Borysfen" on Sept. 30, 2026, destroyed cars are seen on a highway from the Russian-occupied city of Oleshky in the Kherson region of Ukraine. (Ukrainian 34th Separate Marine Brigade "Borysfen" via AP)

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)

First lady Melania Trump speaks during an event about women's health, in the Rose Garden of the White House, Monday, Oct. 19, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)