Residents who were evacuated from the Russian-occupied town of Oleshky As part of a temporary ceasefire brokered by the United States, Ukrainian territory entered on Saturday.
Civilians traveled by bus and plane across Russia and Belarus following a agreement negotiated by American first lady Melania Trump.
Oleshky is a town in the Kherson region of southeastern Ukraine, occupied by Russia since the early days of the Ukraine-Russia War. This is one of the most serious humanitarian crises of the conflict.
The ceasefire began at 3 a.m. Tuesday and is expected to continue until Sunday evening.
Genya SAVILOV /AFP via Getty Images 
Oleshky’s approximately 2,000 remaining residents were offered the choice of moving to Ukrainian or Russian-controlled territory, or remaining in the town with restocked food and medical supplies.
Those who chose to return to Ukraine were taken to the Russian city of Anapa and then flown to Homel, Belarus, where they returned home.
Ukrainian authorities have imposed restrictions on disclosing the number of people evacuated or the location of the border crossing. The measures are aimed at protecting those who chose to stay in Oleshky as well as protecting future humanitarian missions, organizers said.
Genya SAVILOV /AFP via Getty Images 
Relatives were waiting at the Ukrainian-Belarusian border on Saturday, accompanied by humanitarian tents, coffee stands and even provisions to feed the pets the evacuees were taking with them. Volunteers from organizations such as the Red Cross, Doctors Without Borders and World Central Kitchen were also present.
Liza Paliy, 19, who last saw her father more than two and a half years ago when she, her mother and sister fled the occupied territory while he remained behind, was among those waiting.
“We thought at that time it would take a month, two maximum, and we would come back, but unfortunately two years have already passed,” she said.
Genya SAVILOV /AFP via Getty Images 
Daria Pavlyn also waited at the border in the hope of finding her father, Mykhailo, who she had not heard from for about a month.
He had planned to flee the occupied territory with his family after a nearby strike killed two neighbors, but stayed behind when arrangements to care for the family home and animals failed.
“We realized there was no other way, and he walked us out to the road and that was it — that was the last time” they saw him, Pavlyn said.
She explained that since then he had feared undertaking the arduous journey, especially without Russian documents.
AP Photo/Efrem Lukatsky 
Russia and Ukraine have not said how many people have chosen to leave the city, but the US first lady posted on social media on Friday that the humanitarian convoy could safely evacuate more than 750 people.
Besides Melania Trump, Pope Leo XIV — the first American pontiff — also pressured Russian and Ukrainian leaders to allow aid deliveries and civilian evacuations.
Fighting continued elsewhere during the localized ceasefire.
A Ukrainian drone attack killed a 30-year-old woman and a 41-year-old man in the Bryansk region of western Russia, local governor Yegor Kovalchuk said on Saturday. Five other people were injured, he said.
Local authorities also reported Ukrainian drone attacks in the Russian republic of Bashkortostan. Russian media reported that a fire broke out in the regional capital, Ufa, which is home to several oil refineries.
Russia’s Defense Ministry said Saturday its forces shot down 433 Ukrainian drones overnight.
Zelensky said Moscow launched drone attacks on energy and rail infrastructure across Ukraine overnight, leaving 280,000 homes in the Dnipro and kyiv regions without power.
The attacks targeted heat and power cogeneration plants in the kyiv and Sumy regions, four electricity substations and a gas distribution facility in the Dnipro region as well as railway infrastructure in Dnipro and Kharkiv, he said, adding that repair teams were working to restore power.
Gn headline
