Some residents of Oleshky, a Russian-occupied town in southern Ukraine ravaged by food and medicine shortages, left on Friday during a rare ceasefire brokered by the United States. Captured by Russia in 2022 and caught in the so-called "kill zone" near the front line, residents had faced supply shortages for months, with some being forced to hunt and eat pigeons, former residents said. To display this content from YouTube, you must enable advertisement tracking and audience measurement.
One of your browser extensions seems to be blocking the video player from loading. To watch this content, you may need to disable it on this site. Cover image: Evacuations under way in Oleshky - Emmanuelle Chaze reporting from Kyiv (October 30, 2026) © France 24 The fragile ceasefire – announced by US First Lady Melania Trump last week to pave the way for evacuations and deliveries ofhumanitarian aid– is due to end on Sunday evening.
Ukrainian and Russian officials visited the town together on Friday, delivering aid and marshalling those who wanted to leave. After hours there, both sides said they had left with convoys of people – some heading to Russia, others on a journey back to Kyiv-controlled parts of Ukraine via Russia and Belarus. "The Ukrainian delegation, along with the evacuated residents of Oleshky, set off for Anapa," Ukrainian negotiator David Arakhamia said on Friday, referring to a southern Russian city on the Black Sea coast.
"From there, they will fly to Belarus and then travel home by bus," Arakhamia said. Moscow said the operation had been completed "without any incidents". "The humanitarian mission in Oleshky is concluding," Russia's human rights ombudsman Yana Lantratova said in a video post on Telegram.
"Everything went smoothly," she said, saying 25 buses and nine ambulances had been deployed for the evacuations. The pre-war population of Oleshky has dropped from 24,000 to about 2,000. Read moreAid mission set to enter Ukraine's Oleshky as localised ceasefire holds for third day Now in its fourth day, the truce is the longest pause in fighting anywhere on the front line since Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022.
Ukraine's human rights ombudsman Dmytro Lubinets posted videos of himself talking to locals– several of whom thanked him– crying and wiping tears. Groups of residents were seen waiting outside their buildings with bags of belongings ready to leave. "We've been through so much here in these five years," one woman said in images broadcast on Ukrainian TV.
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