Evacuations Begin in Russian-Held Oleshky as Aid Convoy Arrives Under Local Ceasefire

How the evacuation is working

Residents of Oleshky, a town in Ukraine’s southern Kherson region held by Russian forces, began leaving on buses on Friday under a local ceasefire, with officials from both Moscow and Kyiv on the ground to oversee the operation. Ukrainian negotiator David Arakhamia said on Telegram that the evacuation and distribution of humanitarian aid had begun.

A convoy of 25 buses, along with 50 medical professionals and ambulances, was ready to carry more than 750 people who had registered in advance to leave, according to a post on X on Friday by U.S. first lady Melania Trump, whose office said she worked directly with Russian and Ukrainian leadership to define the terms of the ceasefire. Russia’s human rights commissioner, Yana Lantratova, said in a video statement from the town that people wishing to go to Russia and people wishing to go to Ukraine were both gathering, and that everyone would be given the chance to leave.

Residents heading to Ukraine will travel by bus through Russia to Belarus before returning to Ukrainian-controlled territory, Arakhamia said. A humanitarian convoy carrying evacuated residents reached Crimea on Friday, according to Lantratova and witnesses cited by news agencies. Ukraine’s prime minister, Sergiy Koretskyi, told parliament on Friday that no exact figure was available for how many people planned to leave, after retracting an earlier remark that 527 people were planning to go.

A town cut off for months

The ceasefire took effect on Tuesday and is due to end at 10:59 p.m. Sunday, Kyiv time. Demining of the routes for the mission was completed on Thursday, according to a joint statement from Lantratova and her Ukrainian counterpart, Dmytro Lubinets. The pause is the longest anywhere on the front line since Russia launched its full-scale invasion in 2022, according to reports on the operation.

Oleshky was seized by Russian troops in the first days of the invasion in February 2022. Its population is now estimated at 1,700 to 2,000 people, down from about 20,000 before the war. Food, drinking water and medicine ran out in February, and reports say some residents have been eating grass to survive. Some residents have said they are worried about where they will end up if they leave, NBC News reported, since the route to Ukrainian-controlled territory runs through Russia and its ally Belarus.

Lubinets, who was on the ground in Oleshky on Friday, said the ceasefire had held for 80 hours and that he was speaking with residents about what help they needed most. He said he hoped the mission would lead to a wider expansion of humanitarian operations. The operation is the first joint relief effort of its kind by the two sides in four years and eight months of war, according to Reuters. U.S.-mediated peace talks are due to resume next month in Abu Dhabi, Reuters reported.

Reporting based on coverage by the New York Post, Reuters, the Associated Press and AnewZ.