OMM Newsroom
Ukrainians evacuated from the Russian-controlled city of Oleshky have arrived in Chernihiv region in the country’s north. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky wrote on the social network X that the residents had crossed the Ukrainian border and would receive the assistance they needed.
According to AnewZ, Zelensky also shared a video of the evacuees on a bus. Some residents can be seen waving Ukrainian flags in the footage.
Zelensky said a humanitarian operation was conducted to rescue people in Oleshky, in Kherson region. A ceasefire was declared in the Kherson direction, roads leading to Oleshky were cleared of mines and humanitarian aid was delivered. People needing evacuation from the city and surrounding community were taken out.
The Ukrainian president said he hoped humanitarian access to Oleshky would remain open. He added that it was important for state agencies, as well as regional and local authorities, to assist the evacuees and help them adapt.
Zelensky thanked the United States for mediating the operation, as well as U.S. First Lady Melania Trump. He said Ukraine’s Defense Forces had created conditions for the humanitarian operation to be carried out safely, while Ukraine’s Human Rights Ombudsman Dmytro Lubinets and his team had conducted the mission.
He also expressed gratitude to journalists, political and public figures, and others who drew global attention to the situation in Oleshky and the humanitarian disaster in Ukrainian territories temporarily occupied by Russia. According to Zelensky, international attention helps save lives. He called for further steps to ease tensions and make real progress toward peace.
Officials from Russia and Ukraine said hundreds of residents had been evacuated from the city as part of the operation. Oleshky is near the front line in Ukraine’s southern Kherson region. Russian forces seized the city in February 2022, in the early days of the war.
Oleshky has had no electricity, gas or water for three years, and its shops are also closed. Access to and from the city is extremely difficult because roads are mined and drones carry out attacks.
Residents seeking to travel to Ukraine were taken by bus through the Crimean Peninsula to the Russian city of Anapa, then flown to Belarus. Aircraft carrying evacuees landed in the Belarusian city of Gomel on Saturday morning. The residents then crossed the Ukrainian border by bus and travelled to Chernihiv region.
Humanitarian ceasefire due to end on November 1
A humanitarian ceasefire brokered by Melania Trump took effect in Oleshky on October 29. The parties agreed to temporarily suspend military operations to allow humanitarian aid to reach the city and prepare for the evacuation of civilians through a specially designated safe corridor.
The local ceasefire is scheduled to end at 10:59 p.m. local time on November 1. Zelensky thanked Melania Trump and Ukraine’s Human Rights Ombudsman Dmytro Lubinets for helping carry out the operation.
Russia’s Commissioner for Human Rights, Yana Lantratova, also oversaw the operation. She spoke to the media alongside Lubinets in the city of Armyansk on Friday.
