Oleshky evacuees reach Belarus on route back to Ukraine

Hundreds of residents evacuated from Russian-occupied Oleshky arrived in Belarus on Saturday after a temporary ceasefire opened a route out of the devastated Ukrainian city. Ukrainian officials said they expected the evacuees to reach Ukrainian territory later in the day.

Four planes carrying residents landed in Gomel, Ukrainian parliament member David Arakhamia said. Belarusian state media reported that rescue workers, medical teams and Red Cross volunteers met the group. The state-owned Belta news agency said buses had left the airport for the Ukrainian border.

“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,” Arakhamia said.

The journey began Friday under a localized ceasefire in the Kherson region that took effect Tuesday and is due to last through Sunday, Nov. 1. The truce allowed crews to clear mines from the road out of Oleshky. Although Ukrainian military positions are about 5km (3.1 miles) away, evacuees traveled through Russian-occupied territory to the southern Russian city of Anapa before flying to Belarus, the BBC reported.

Residents had a four-hour window to leave before a convoy of 25 buses departed Friday afternoon. The buses had space for 750 people, and ambulances were available for those with limited mobility, according to the BBC. Al Jazeera reported that neither Russia nor Ukraine had specified how many people left. About 2,000 residents were offered the choice of going to Ukrainian- or Russian-held territory or staying in Oleshky; Russia’s ombudswoman, Yana Lantratova, said buses also carried people who wanted to live in Russia.

Several hundred residents are understood to have stayed in a city without gas, electricity or running water, the BBC reported. Oleshky has also faced shortages of food and medicine after years of fighting. Ukrainian human rights ombudsman Dmytro Lubinets said those who remained “will receive all the necessary humanitarian assistance.” Russia said Thursday that it had prepared “dozens of tonnes” of food, medicine, hygiene products and generator fuel for residents who chose not to leave.

Lubinets and Lantratova traveled to Oleshky together on Friday. The BBC reported that Lubinets was the first Ukrainian official to visit Russian-occupied parts of Ukraine since the war began, and that some Ukrainians objected to seeing him alongside a Russian representative. Lubinets said he worked with Lantratova to save lives.

The White House says U.S. first lady Melania Trump helped broker the truce. Pope Leo XIV also pressed Russian and Ukrainian leaders to permit aid deliveries and evacuations. Fighting continued elsewhere during the local pause: CBS News reported a Russian strike on a Dnipro train station killed at least 14 people Thursday, while an overnight attack on Kyiv’s energy grid left hundreds of thousands without power.