Evacuees from Russian-occupied city arrive in Ukraine

Complex humanitarian mission extracted hundreds of people from Oleshky during rare local ceasefire between Moscow and Kyiv

Residents from the Russian-controlled frontline town of Oleshky reached Ukrainian-controlled territory on Saturday afternoon after a complex humanitarian operation rescued hundreds of people.

The town had been cut off from food and medical supplies by drone strikes and mines, and most parts do not have electricity, heating or water. To reach it, Moscow and Kyiv declared a local ceasefire, the most significant pause in hostilities since the full-scale war began over four years ago.

"As of now, Ukrainian citizens from Oleshky have crossed the Ukrainian border," Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy wrote on X on Saturday. He thanked US First Lady Melania Trump, who helped broker the agreement.

"Further steps toward de-escalation and real progress toward peace are also needed," Zelenskyy wrote.

The group crossed Ukraine's border with Belarus in the Chernihiv region on Saturday afternoon, ending a journey that began the previous day. They had been evacuated by bus from Oleshky, which lies in Ukraine's southern Kherson region, and transported through Russian-occupied Crimea to Russia's Krasnodar region.

Four Russian military planes then flew the evacuees to Belarus, from where they were transported to Ukraine.

Other residents who chose to remain in Russian-controlled territory were transported to Simferopol in the Crimean Peninsula, according to Russian media. People who chose to remain in the city were given humanitarian aid.

A joint delegation led by Ukrainian human rights ombudsman Dmytro Lubinets and his Russian counterpart Yana Lantratova travelled to Oleshky on Friday.

Lubinets and Lantratova stood side by side while speaking to journalists. They said they hoped similar humanitarian missions co-ordinated by Melania Trump could be organised in the future.

"We want the experience of Oleshky to be more than an isolated case," Lubinets later wrote on social media.

Before the evacuation fewer than 2,000 people were thought to be in Oleshky, down from 24,000 before Russia captured the city in 2022.

Ukrainian and Russian representatives declined to specify how many people were evacuated. A correspondent from the Newsmax TV channel who was embedded with the delegation that went to Oleshky said he counted 11 buses going to Ukraine and four more heading to Russian-held regions.

The oldest person to have been evacuated is 94 years old and the youngest is one year old, according to Lubinets.

A ceasefire was first declared in the Kherson region on October 27, making it possible for Russian forces to de-mine the road to Oleshky. The town, near the Dnipro River, has been devastated by years of fighting and a deadly flood in 2023 caused by the destruction of a dam by Russian troops.

"The ceasefire will remain in effect until 22:59 on November 1, the longest ceasefire observed by both sides since 2022," Lubinets wrote on Telegram.

Fighting continued unabated on the rest of the frontline and in both Ukraine and Russia. Multiple strikes on energy facilities overnight on Friday forced Ukraine's state grid operator to enforce prolonged outages in the Ukrainian capital and several regions, with some residents facing more than 15 hours of power cuts on Saturday.

The strikes left 200,000 households without power in Dnipro and 80,000 more in Kyiv, Zelenskyy said on Saturday morning.

An overnight drone and missile attack hit a plant in Russia's Rostov region producing rocket fuel for missile systems, Ukraine's General Staff said.

Ukraine attacked Russian oil refineries for a second day in a row after a two-week pause. On Friday Ukrainian drones struck the Novokuibyshevsk refinery in the Samara region. On Saturday the Bashneft-Novoil refinery in Ufa was attacked, according to Russian independent media. Ukrainian channels also reported a fire near a Rosneft fuel depot close to Sheremetyevo Airport in Moscow.