Evacuees from Oleshky arrive in Belarus after ceasefire
Residents of the Russian-occupied city of Oleshky were flown to Gomel, Belarus, and are expected to return to Ukraine on Saturday following a humanitarian ceasefire brokered by U.S. First Lady Melania Trump.
People evacuated from the Russian-occupied city of Oleshky landed in Gomel, Belarus, on Saturday morning, Belarusian state media reported. The evacuation, carried out on Friday, was part of a local ceasefire negotiated by U.S. First Lady Melania Trump.
"The last, fourth plane landed in Gomel. In a few hours, all Ukrainian citizens evacuated from Oleshky, together with the Ukrainian delegation, will be on Ukrainian territory," said Ukrainian official David Arakhamia.
A bus convoy left Gomel airport later that day, heading toward the Ukrainian border, according to the state-owned news agency Belta. The humanitarian ceasefire, which began on Tuesday across the Kherson frontline, allowed the road out of Oleshky to be cleared of mines and will remain in effect until 1 November.
Residents had a four-hour window on Friday to depart; a convoy of 25 buses with capacity for 750 people, plus ambulances for those with limited mobility, left the town in the afternoon. Ukrainian human-rights ombudsman Dmytro Lubinets said those who remain in the city will receive necessary humanitarian assistance.
Before the invasion, Oleshky had a population of about 24,000. The city was seized by Russian forces in the early days of the 2022 invasion and has been isolated from supplies. Ukrainian military positions lie roughly 5 km from the city, while bridges over the nearby Dnipro River have been destroyed and the riverbank remains mined.
Lubinets and his Russian counterpart Yana Lantratova visited Oleshky together on Friday, marking the first time a Ukrainian official has entered Russian-occupied territory since the war began. Their joint effort was described as aimed at saving lives, though it has drawn criticism within Ukraine.