Civilians leave occupied Oleshky for the first time in four years under a US-brokered truce

Moscow and Kyiv say the evacuation of civilians from Oleshky, a Russian-occupied town in Ukraine’s Kherson region, was completed “without incident” on 30 October under a local truce brokered by US first lady Melania Trump, RFE/RL reports. It was the first time buses had taken residents out of the town in more than four years.

How it worked

• The local ceasefire has held since 27 October with no reported violations and is due to last until 1 November.
• After reaching northern Crimea, one convoy headed into Russia and another toward Ukraine, said Russian human rights commissioner Yana Lantratova.
• Ukraine’s ombudsman Dmytro Lubinets, who led the Ukrainian delegation, said everyone who wanted to leave for Ukraine was on their way. Their route runs through the Russian city of Anapa, then by plane to Homel in Belarus and by bus into Ukraine’s Chernihiv region — a detour needed because roads along the front are mined and destroyed. AP and Zelenskyy’s office reported that evacuees reached Ukrainian-held territory on 31 October.
• Tens of tons of humanitarian aid were distributed to those who stayed.

Fears of “filtration”

Ukrainian journalist Maria Semenchenko, who grew up in Oleshky, told RFE/RL that some residents feared Russian “filtration” — coercive screening and interrogation — while crossing Russian territory, and that some had suffered torture in the past. No such incidents had been reported so far.

A devastated town

Oleshky, home to about 24,000 people before the war, was captured early in Russia’s full-scale invasion and became a front-line town after Ukraine liberated Kherson in 2022. About 90% of it was flooded after the destruction of the Kakhovka dam in 2023. According to Melania Trump’s office, fewer than 2,000 people remained by autumn, including around 50 children. Kyiv blames Russia for the humanitarian situation; the Kremlin blames Ukrainian drone strikes.