Evacuation of civilians begins in besieged Ukrainian city of Oleshky
Civilians began evacuating from the besieged Russian-held city of Oleshky in southern Ukraine on Friday, the first such operation in four years and eight months of war.
The city, which lies on the Russian-occupied side of the Dnipro River opposite Kherson, has suffered months of serious food and medical shortages, leading to warnings of starvation for the few thousand people remaining there, including about 50 children. The humanitarian convoy, including 25 buses and ambulances, arrived in the city to deliver food and medicine and evacuate those wishing to leave for Russia or Ukraine.
The localized ceasefire in Ukraine's southern Kherson region allowed for the roads out of Oleshky to be de-mined, making the evacuation possible. While Ukrainian territory lies just 3 miles (5km) from Oleshky, evacuees will need to travel to the southern Russian city of Anapa and on to Belarus, and then drive across the border into Ukraine's Chernihiv region.
Complex evacuation route
Davyd Arakhamia, a lawmaker with Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy's Servant of the People party – who was part of the delegation to Oleshky – confirmed the evacuation of some people who were travelling to Anapa.
From there, they will fly by plane to Belarus, and then travel by bus to their homes.
Kyrylo Budanov, the head of Ukraine's presidential office, wrote in an online post: 'At this moment, the humanitarian operation is under way in Oleshky.' While earlier reports had suggested more than 500 people wanted to move to Ukrainian territory, it was unclear how many people travelled in the convoy.
Humanitarian crisis
Kyiv's delegation reached the city late on Friday morning to prepare for the evacuation, with footage on social media showing tearful residents embracing delegation members as they gathered in heavy rain to wait for the main evacuation convoy to arrive. Several hundred people, mainly older adults, have chosen to stay.
Oleshky's population has declined to about 2,000 since the start of the war, according to authorities and volunteers. Many of those who stayed have given harrowing accounts of risking their lives travelling along mine-strewn roads to get food and water.
Some say they have survived on a cup of rice or buckwheat a day, sometimes with a tomato, cucumber or wild plants added. Ksenia Arkhipova, a volunteer who previously lived in Oleshky and remains in contact with people there, said large numbers of Russian military personnel were in the city.
Ceasefire cooperation
The convoy arrived under a ceasefire in the area, which the US first lady Melania Trump claimed to have helped broker – a rare example of cooperation between the warring sides. On Friday, the Kremlin, however, described it as a special case that was 'difficult to extrapolate' to the wider search for a peace settlement.
Oleshky was seized by Russian troops during the first days of the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. It has suffered extensive damage and was badly flooded after the destruction of the huge upriver Kakhovka dam in June 2023.
Ukraine's human rights ombudsman Dmytro Lubinets, who was on the ground to coordinate the operation with his Russian counterpart Yana Lantratova, acknowledged that many residents were choosing to stay despite the hardships. 'This is the first time since 2022 that a ceasefire has been established across such an extensive stretch of the frontline and has been maintained for such a significant duration,' Lubinets said.
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