Civilians evacuated from the Russian-occupied Ukrainian city of Oleshky arrived in Ukrainian-held territory on Saturday under a temporary ceasefire brokered by the United States. Their route took them by bus and plane through Russia and Belarus before they reached the Ukrainian border, where relatives and aid workers awaited them.
Oleshky, in southeastern Ukraine's Kherson region, has been under Russian occupation since the conflict's opening days and faces one of its most severe humanitarian crises. The localized ceasefire took effect at 3 a.m. Tuesday and was expected to last until Sunday evening. An estimated 2,000 residents still in the city were given the option of leaving for Ukrainian-held or Russian-held territory, or staying with replenished supplies of food and medicine.
Evacuees heading to Ukrainian-held territory were first transported to Anapa in Russia and then flown to Homel in Belarus before continuing their journey. Ukrainian authorities restricted disclosure of both the number of people evacuated and the location of the border crossing. Organizers said those restrictions were intended to protect residents who remained in Oleshky and safeguard future humanitarian operations.
Aid tents and coffee stands were set up at the Ukrainian-Belarusian border on Saturday, with supplies also available for pets accompanying the evacuees. Volunteers from the Red Cross, Doctors Without Borders and World Central Kitchen were among those present to help.
Among the relatives waiting was 19-year-old Liza Paliy, who had not seen her father for more than two and a half years. She had fled the occupied territory with her mother and sister while he stayed behind. Paliy said the family had initially expected to return after a month or two.
Daria Pavlyn was also hoping to see her father, Mykhailo, after roughly a month without contact. He had intended to leave with his family after a nearby strike killed two neighbors, but remained when plans for someone to look after their home and animals collapsed. Pavlyn said he subsequently feared the difficult journey out, especially without Russian documents.
Neither Russia nor Ukraine has disclosed how many residents opted to leave Oleshky. In a social media post on Friday, U.S. first lady Melania Trump said the humanitarian convoy could safely evacuate more than 750 people.
Fighting continued outside the ceasefire area. Bryansk regional Gov. Yegor Kovalchuk said a Ukrainian drone attack killed a 30-year-old woman and a 41-year-old man and wounded five others on Saturday. Officials also reported Ukrainian drone attacks in Bashkortostan, where Russian media reported a fire in the regional capital, Ufa. Russia's Defense Ministry said its forces intercepted 433 Ukrainian drones overnight.
Zelenskyy said overnight Russian drone attacks on Ukrainian energy and railway infrastructure left 280,000 households without electricity in the Dnipro and Kyiv regions. He said targets included combined heat and power plants in Kyiv and Sumy, four electricity substations and a gas distribution facility in Dnipro, and railway infrastructure in Dnipro and Kharkiv. Repair crews were working to restore power.
