Russia and Ukraine began their first joint relief operation of the war on Friday, evacuating residents from the Russian-held town of Oleshky in southern Ukraine under a local ceasefire brokered by US first lady Melania Trump.
People were boarding buses out of the town, some bound for Russia and others for Ukraine, said Russia’s human rights commissioner, Yana Lantratova. An aid convoy brought in food, hygiene products, medical supplies and fuel. A senior Ukrainian lawmaker confirmed that evacuations were under way.
Lantratova appeared alongside her Ukrainian counterpart, Dmytro Lubinets, in an operation that Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said showed a “high degree of coordination” between the two. Lubinets said no ceasefire since 2022 had covered “such an extensive stretch of the front line” or lasted as long. The truce took effect in Oleshky and the wider Kherson region early on Tuesday.
Leaving was voluntary. Lantratova said 25 buses had been laid on, with arrangements for bedridden residents, and 50 medical workers were at hand. A bus fitted with cages allowed people to take their pets.
Lubinets said anyone who needed help would get it, whichever country they chose. Footage he posted showed residents in tears as they welcomed the Ukrainian delegation.
Evacuees bound for Ukraine face a long detour. They will cross Russia into Belarus and then enter the Kyiv and Chernihiv regions, Prime Minister Sergiy Koretskyi told Ukraine’s parliament, according to Interfax Ukraine.
There was no word on how many people chose each destination, or whether anyone stayed behind.
The convoy could only arrive after the approach was cleared of mines. Lantratova said a sapper and another person died in that work.
Conditions in the town
Oleshky sits across the Dnipro River from Kherson and fell to Russian forces within days of the February 2022 invasion. It has been heavily damaged since, and was left badly flooded in 2023 when the Kakhovka dam upstream was destroyed.
Residents say they have had to travel mined roads to find food and water, one of them nicknamed the ‘road of death’. Some say a daily cup of rice or buckwheat has kept them alive, now and then with a tomato, a cucumber or wild plants.
Strikes continue
The ceasefire is local. Officials said Russian strikes hit seven regions overnight, as well as Kyiv and the southeastern city of Dnipro, where a Russian drone killed at least 15 people on a crowded railway platform on Thursday. Russia said it had downed 1,043 Ukrainian drones over its territory during the night.
Peace talks
Abu Dhabi is due to host the next round of US-mediated peace talks next month, the first since February. US President Donald Trump, who once said he could end the war in a day, is trying to bring it to a close.
Moscow is still counting on Trump to push Kyiv towards a settlement on terms close to its own, among them full Russian control of the Donbas region and a ban on Ukraine joining NATO.
Kyiv, for its part, wants to keep receiving US intelligence and full access to Starshield, Elon Musk’s battlefield communications system, which was recently disrupted. It also wants US weapons bought by European countries, including Patriot interceptor missiles, to keep arriving.
(With information from Reuters)
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