Hundreds evacuate besieged Oleshky under Melania Trump-brokered ceasefire in first joint Ukraine-Russia relief operation
Residents of the Russian-occupied town in Kherson began leaving on Friday under a local ceasefire, travelling via Crimea and Russia towards Ukraine, in the first operation of its kind in four years and eight months of war.
Hundreds of residents of the Russian-occupied Ukrainian town of Oleshky began evacuating on Friday under a local ceasefire, in the first joint relief operation of its kind between Russia and Ukraine in four years and eight months of war.
The evacuation was the centrepiece of a humanitarian mission that brought officials from both sides into the devastated town in the Kherson region, alongside aid deliveries for residents who chose to stay. By Friday evening, convoys carrying evacuees had left Oleshky and split into groups heading for Ukraine and for Russia, according to officials on both sides.
The route for those heading to Ukraine underlines how cut off the town has become. With a direct crossing of the Dnipro River into Ukrainian-controlled territory not possible, the group is travelling through Crimea to Anapa in Russia's Krasnodar region, from where they are expected to fly to Belarus on Saturday and then travel by bus into Ukraine's Chernihiv region.
The exact number of people leaving remains unclear. Ukrainian officials said 25 buses with 750 seats had been prepared for the operation, while the town is thought to still hold about 2,000 people, including 50 children. Ukraine's prime minister initially gave a figure of 527 residents returning to Ukrainian-held territory, then withdrew it, saying the official total would only be confirmed once the evacuation was complete.
Oleshky, on the Dnipro opposite the city of Kherson, was seized by Russian forces in the first days of the full-scale invasion in February 2022 and has been under continuous occupation since April that year. Once home to about 24,000 people, it now has no electricity, heat or running water as winter approaches, and access routes have been heavily mined and exposed to drones.
The operation became possible under a local ceasefire that took effect early on Tuesday 27 October and has since expanded across the Kherson region. Demining along the designated routes was completed on Thursday, although officials said two people taking part in the clearing work were killed.
The truce was mediated by United States First Lady Melania Trump, according to the White House and officials from both countries. She had described Oleshky as being on the brink of disaster, with food and medical supplies running perilously low for the people still there, and the mission was coordinated by the two countries' human rights commissioners.
Ukraine's human rights commissioner, Dmytro Lubinets, travelled to Oleshky to escort evacuees, becoming the first senior Ukrainian official to travel openly into occupied territory since the war began. He appeared alongside his Russian counterpart, Yana Lantratova, who said food, hygiene products, medical supplies and fuel were being delivered to the town.
Ukrainian parliamentarian Davyd Arakhamia, a key negotiator, confirmed that the Ukrainian delegation had set off with the evacuated residents. Russian officials said one convoy was organising in Armyansk in northern Crimea, with groups bound for different destinations, and that the operation had proceeded without incidents.
The ceasefire is due to expire on Sunday 1 November, and the Kremlin has cautioned against reading too much into the episode, with spokesman Dmitry Peskov calling it an isolated case that should not be extrapolated to the broader peace process. For now, the focus is on the evacuees' arrival on Saturday and on whether the fragile local truce holds long enough for aid to reach those who remain behind, while the wider war continues elsewhere.
