The White House announced today that the Russians and Ukrainians involved in the Alyoshki/Oleshky rescue operation have been invited to the White House for a Thursday event hosted by Melania Trump. The White House said: “Mrs. Trump independently initiated engagement between the two warring nations and successfully secured a ceasefire in Oleshky and the surrounding Kherson region. This achievement marks an unprecedented diplomatic initiative by an American First Lady.”

The human rights commissioners, Yana Lantratova for Russia and Dmytro Lubinets for Ukraine, both displayed a mission-oriented, non-ideological approach to relieving the residents of the Russian-controlled town of many months of drones and deprivation. Once the Russian military had been able to clear away enough Ukrainian mines to allow transport of food and medicine into the town to resume, it is estimated that around 1,000 residents chose to stay. More than 750 residents were evacuated, with more than 500 choosing to move within pre-1991 Russian borders and more than 200 to Kiev-controlled areas of Ukraine.

While some may still cling to the bizarre Western narrative—that the Russians had kept their own citizens trapped in Alyoshki, deprived of food—the reality is that, once Ukraine agreed to stop shelling and “droning” the town, the situation could be normalized. However, there is still a scramble over who is to be credited for the successful operation. Last week, the Kyiv Independent expressed the concern that Russian President Vladimir Putin was behind the operation to credit Melania Trump. They quoted her senior advisor, Marc Beckman, as saying: “President Putin wanted very much for her to participate and also wrote a formal letter explaining that she… would be recognized as the exclusive intermediary from Russia.”