Ceasefire Allows Evacuation from Devastated Russian-Occupied Oleshky
A humanitarian ceasefire brokered by US First Lady Melania Trump has allowed hundreds of residents of the devastated Russian-occupied city of Oleshky to evacuate, with Ukrainian authorities confirming that the evacuees are on their way to southern Russia.
The ceasefire, the longest and most widespread since Russia's invasion of Ukraine in 2022, has been in force in the entire frontline region of Kherson since Tuesday, allowing for the road out of Oleshky to be demined. Residents who wished to leave had a four-hour window to do so on Friday, with a convoy of 25 buses brought in to allow up to 750 people to leave the town until 14:00 (12:00 GMT), along with ambulances for people with limited mobility.
Ukraine's human rights ombudsman Dmytro Lubinets and his Russian counterpart Yana Lantratova travelled to Oleshky together on Friday, setting off from Armiansk in the Russian-occupied Crimean peninsula. Lubinets is the first Ukrainian official since the start of the war to visit Russian-occupied parts of Ukraine, and will also become the first to visit Russia when he escorts the evacuees back into Ukraine on Saturday.
The evacuees will first travel to the southern Russian city of Anapa, where they will board a Russian government plane to Gomel in Belarus, and then drive across the border into Ukraine's Chernihiv region. Others are expected to choose to stay in Russian-occupied territory.
