TRAPPED FOR YEARS, THEY FINALLY GOT OUT: Hundreds Evacuate Besieged Oleshky Under Fragile Ceasefire

The town of Oleshky, in Ukraine's southern Kherson region, has been under continuous Russian occupation since April 2022. Ukrainian authorities say about 2,000 people, including 50 children, were still stuck in the heavily damaged town when the evacuation began.

A temporary truce that took effect Tuesday made the evacuation possible, and it has since expanded across the Kherson region. Ukraine's ombudsman, Dmytro Lubinets, traveled to Oleshky to personally escort evacuees, becoming the first high-profile Ukrainian official to openly travel into Russian-controlled territory since the war began.

The operation involved 25 buses with capacity for 750 seats, according to Lubinets. The exact number of people being evacuated was not announced by either Russian or Ukrainian authorities, and some residents chose to stay.

The route out is indirect. Evacuation directly across the Dnipro River into Ukrainian-controlled territory is not possible, so the group will travel through occupied Crimea to Anapa in Russia's Krasnodar region, according to Ukrainian parliamentarian Davyd Arakhamia. They were expected to reach the Ukrainian border on Saturday.

Life in Oleshky had deteriorated sharply in recent months. Ukrainian authorities reported the town ran out of food and other supplies in September, with no access to electricity, gas or medicine. The ceasefire was negotiated by U.S. First Lady Melania Trump, who said she worked directly with Ukrainian and Russian leadership as the exclusive intermediary. CNN notes that while the truce appeared to be holding Friday, chances of it turning into a wider peace agreement remain slim.