Evacuation begins from ravaged Russian-controlled Ukrainian city
The evacuation of stranded residents in Oleshky, a ravaged Ukrainian frontline city under Russian occupation has begun as part of a US-brokered ceasefire, officials from Russia and Ukraine said.
Captured by Russia in 2022, locals in the city had faced food, water and medicine shortages for months, with some being forced to hunt and eat pigeons, former residents said.
Officials from Moscow and Kyiv arrived in Oleshky on Friday to oversee the operation.
"Evacuation and distribution of humanitarian aid have begun," Ukrainian negotiator David Arakhamia said on social media.
Yana Lantratova sent a video message to announce that Oleshky residents were preparing to leave. (Reuters)
Russia's human rights ombudsman Yana Lantratova posted a video showing groups of people waiting to board buses.
Some would be taken to Russia, others to Kyiv-controlled parts of Ukraine, she said.
The population of Oleshky has dropped from 24,000 before the war to about 2,000.
Ukraine's human rights ombudsman Dmytro Lubinets posted videos of himself talking to locals, several of whom thanked him, were crying and wiping tears from their eyes.
Groups of residents were seen waiting outside their buildings with bags of belongings ready to leave.
Officials from both countries have said some in the city would choose to stay, even if the fighting resumed.
The ceasefire, announced by US First Lady Melania Trump last week, is due to end on Sunday evening.
A man walks across a road beneath anti-drone nets in Oleshky ahead of the evacuation. (AP: Evgeniy Maloletka)
Now in its fourth day, it is the longest pause in fighting anywhere on the front line since Russia invaded in 2022.
Several other partial ceasefires, for instance, around Orthodox Easter, have been marred by accusations of violations.
Oleshky residents have given harrowing accounts of risking their lives travelling along mine-strewn roads, one known as the "road of death", just 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.
A man rides a bicycle beneath anti-drone nets stretched over a street during the ceasefire in Oleshky. (AP: Evgeniy Maloletka)
Despite the brief respite in the conflict around Oleshky, attacks elsewhere have continued unabated.
Some 200,000 households were left without power in the Ukrainian city of Dnipro after Russian attacks overnight.
A drone strike on a train station there a day earlier killed at least 14 people, while an attack on the northern city of Chernigiv killed two teenage girls.
US-mediated peace talks are due to resume next month in Abu Dhabi for the first time since February, as US President Donald Trump seeks to end a conflict he once said he could solve in a day.
Russia still hopes that Mr Trump can pressure Kyiv into accepting a deal that meets many of Moscow's conditions, such as full Russian control of Ukraine's Donbas region and a bar on Ukraine joining NATO.
Kyiv wants to ensure that US intelligence sharing continues, along with full access to Elon Musk's recently disrupted battlefield communications system, Starshield, and that European-bought US military hardware, including Patriot interceptor missiles, continues to flow.
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