Ukrainians evacuated from Russian-occupied Oleshky reunite with families

Some elderly individuals were transported on stretchers, having endured years trapped near the front lines without food, water, or electricity, often resorting to foraging for edible plants.

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy expressed gratitude to First Lady Melania Trump for her efforts in negotiating a localized ceasefire that facilitated the evacuation on Friday.

Daughters Dasha and Anya Palii sprinted toward the bus carrying their father, Mykhailo, shouting and crying, reflecting the immense relief after three years of uncertainty. Their mother, Zhanna, touched Mykhailo’s face, repeatedly stroking his forehead, seemingly to confirm his identity. He promised her they would marry.

Tetiana and Volodymyr, an elderly couple carrying a cat, told BBC News they lost their home when it burned down during the first year of the war and had been living in a neighbor’s abandoned house. “We went on vacation with our neighbors and exchanged families; that ended up destroying us,” they said.

They now face the challenge of finding new housing and rebuilding their lives.

The Ukrainian military positions are only 5 kilometers from Oleshky. The evacuation process involved traveling through territory controlled by Russian troops to southern Russia, then flying to Belarus, before finally being transported by car across the northern Ukrainian border.

Dmytro Lubinets, the Ukrainian Parliament Commissioner for Human Rights, stated that the oldest evacuee was 94 years old, while the youngest was just one year old.

Zelenskyy posted on X (formerly Twitter) that “all of them will receive the help they need. It is important that government agencies and all involved regional and local authorities work effectively and help our people adapt.”

The convoy included as many ambulances as buses. The impact of years spent between the front lines is visible in the weary faces of many Oleshky residents, some using crutches, others in wheelchairs.

A brief ceasefire and swift evacuation were enacted. The humanitarian ceasefire in the border region of Kherson began on Tuesday, marking the first days of peace in the area in four years following Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

Prior to the war, Oleshky was home to 24,000 people. The situation in the city had become so dire that delivering supplies was extremely difficult, and escape was perilous due to mined routes and drone attacks. Destroyed bridges across the nearby Dnipro River have made escape even more difficult, and some reports indicate the riverbank is mined.

One resident who fled the city three weeks ago told the BBC that they walked through 24 kilometers of minefields to reach safety.

The ceasefire allowed for the demining of the road leaving the city and facilitated the delivery of humanitarian aid. The ceasefire measures are scheduled to remain in effect until the end of Sunday, November 1st.

Approximately several hundred people have chosen to remain in the war-torn city, despite widespread destruction and the lack of gas, electricity, and running water. Some elderly residents were unwilling to leave, according to a family member.

Lubinets stated on Friday morning that those who remain “will receive all the necessary humanitarian assistance.” He and his Russian counterpart, Yana Lantratova, traveled together to Oleshky on Friday, departing from Armiansk in the Russian-occupied Crimea peninsula.

Lubinets is the first Ukrainian official to visit areas of Ukraine occupied by Russia since the start of the war. Zelenskyy praised him and his team for helping to move evacuees to safety. The president also thanked those who helped to highlight the “true humanitarian catastrophe in the temporarily occupied Ukrainian territory by Russia.”

The ceasefire required close cooperation between Lubinets and Lantratova, which, according to Lubinets, was carried out in the interest of saving lives. Russia announced on Thursday that it had prepared “dozens of tons” of aid for residents who do not wish to leave, including food, medicine, hygiene products, and fuel for generators.