Russia-occupied Oleshky evacuees arrive in Belarus, Ukraine next

Three ⁠planes ⁠carrying residents evacuated ⁠from the Russian-controlled frontline Ukrainian city of Oleshky landed at Gomel airport ‌in Belarus, the Belta state news agency reported on Saturday.

The evacuees, wishing to leave for ⁠Ukraine, travelled by bus via the ‌Crimean peninsula to the Russian town of ‌Anapa before flying to Belarus ⁠and ⁠will proceed to Ukraine ‌via a border crossing, Belta said.

Starving and ‌exhausted ‌residents were evacuated ‌as ⁠part of a joint relief ⁠operation by the opposing sides, the first of ‌its kind ‌in four years and eight months of war.

The Russian Defence Ministry said the residents were transported aboard Russian military aircraft from Anapa to Gomel in Belarus accompanied by Ukraine’s Human Rights Commissioner Dmytro Lubinets.

No specific figures have yet been provided for the number of people rescued from Oleshky during the evacuation, in the first humanitarian operation of its kind since the start of the Russian full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

More than 200 residents are reported to have opted to leave the city, which is located in the part of the Kherson region illegally annexed by Russia, for Ukraine.

Dozens of others chose to travel to territories controlled by Russia as part of the relief operation coordinated by both Ukraine and Russia under a US-brokered ceasefire in place since Tuesday.

According to both Russian and Ukrainian accounts, residents were given the choice of leaving or remaining in the devastated town, which has suffered severe food and medical shortages for months.

Dozens of evacuees were temporarily accommodated in Simferopol in Crimea, the Black Sea peninsula annexed by Russia in 2014, before continuing their journey.

More than 1,000 people may still be living in the frontline city, which has been cut off from the outside world. Before the war, Oleshky had a population of around 24,000.

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The region, which is heavily mined and has numerous anti-tank barriers, has been sealed off by the Russian military. Ukrainian drone attacks pose a particular risk in the area.

Lubinets and his Russian counterpart, Yana Lantratova, travelled to Oleshky on Friday to personally supervise the evacuation.

They thanked US First Lady Melania Trump for brokering the ceasefire, which is due to last until and including Sunday, and raised the possibility of further humanitarian operations to help people in need in frontline towns.