Ukrainians Evacuated from Oleshky Arrive in Belarus, Expected Home Later on Saturday
Residents evacuated from the devastated Russian-occupied city of Oleshky have arrived in Belarus. Authorities have said they are expected to be back in Ukraine later on Saturday.
The residents were taken out of Oleshky on Friday during a local ceasefire. That ceasefire was brokered by US First Lady Melania Trump.
According to Belarusian state media and a senior Ukrainian official, planes carrying the Oleshky residents landed in the Belarusian city of Gomel on Saturday morning.
Senior Ukrainian official David Arakhamia said: "The last, fourth plane landed in Gomel (Belarus). In a few hours, all Ukrainian citizens evacuated from Oleshky, together with the Ukrainian delegation, will be on Ukrainian territory."
Belarus's state-owned news agency Belta reported that a bus convoy of Oleshky residents had left Gomel airport and was heading towards the Ukrainian border.
The evacuees faced a long route out. Ukrainian military positions lie just 5km (3.1 miles) from Oleshky, but the evacuees first had to travel into Russian-occupied territory and then to the southern Russian city of Anapa, from where they flew to Gomel. The convoy carrying residents first travelled through Crimea as well.
A humanitarian ceasefire took force across the frontline region of Kherson on Tuesday. It has provided the first few days of peace in the area in four years, following Russia's invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
The ceasefire allowed the road out of Oleshky to be demined. It will remain in place until the end of Sunday 1 November.
Residents had a four-hour window to leave on Friday before a convoy of 25 buses, with space for 750 people, left the town in the afternoon. Ambulances for people with limited mobility travelled with the convoy.
Several hundred people, however, are understood to have decided to stay in the war-torn city. They remained in Oleshky despite widespread devastation and a lack of gas, electricity and running water.
Ukraine's human rights ombudsman Dmytro Lubinets said on Friday morning that those who decided to stay "will receive all the necessary humanitarian assistance".
Lubinets travelled to Oleshky together with his Russian counterpart Yana Lantratova 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.
The Oleshky ceasefire required close cooperation with Lantratova, which Lubinets said he carried out in the interests of saving lives. But some in Ukraine have recoiled at the sight of him standing beside a representative of the Russian occupying power.
Russia said on Thursday that it had prepared "dozens of tonnes" of aid for the residents who do not wish to leave, including food, medicine, hygiene products and fuel for generators.
