First evacuees from Russian-occupied Oleshky reach Ukrainian-controlled territory

Residents of Oleshky, a Russian-occupied town in Ukraine's Kherson region, have crossed into Ukrainian-controlled territory via Belarus, completing the first major joint civilian evacuation since Russia's full-scale invasion began in February 2022.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy announced on social media that Ukrainian citizens from Oleshky had crossed the border in the Chernihiv region, which adjoins Belarus. The operation was conducted under a localised ceasefire confined to the southern Kherson region.

Russian military authorities said evacuees were first taken by bus to Anapa, a city on Russia's Black Sea coast in the Krasnodar region. Those who chose to travel onward to Ukraine were then flown by Russian military aircraft to Gomel in Belarus, where the Ukrainian human rights ombudsman Dmytro Lubinets met the delegation.

25 buses were made available for the evacuation. Lubinets had said more than 750 people had the opportunity to leave, though the total number actually evacuated remained unclear. Some evacuees went to Russia; others travelled toward Ukraine.

Before the war, roughly 24,000 people lived in Oleshky. By recent accounts, between 1,500 and 2,000 residents remained. The town had been largely cut off from the outside world for months; the UN human rights office recorded the last regular food delivery as May. Lubinets expressed hope that the arrangement could serve as a model for other occupied towns.