Ukraine Warupdated 1h ago3 min read
MapHundreds Evacuated From Russian-Occupied Oleshky Arrive In Belarus, Headed For Ukraine
“Pope Leo XIV – the first American pontiff – also pressed Russian and Ukrainian leaders to allow aid deliveries”
“Russia said on Thursday that it had prepared ‘dozens of tonnes’ of aid for the residents who do not wish to leave,”
Map: © OpenStreetMap contributors, ODbL · Cropped for layout
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Evacuees from Russian-occupied Oleshky transported to Belarus under a ceasefire truce. Four planes carrying evacuees landed in Gomel, southeastern Belarus.
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Oleshky evacuees to Belarus
Hundreds of residents from the Russian-occupied Ukrainian town of Oleshky were transported to Belarus as part of a major evacuation mission under a truce that the White House says United States First Lady Melania Trump helped broker. Four planes carrying the Oleshky evacuees arrived in the southeastern Belarusian town of Gomel on Saturday, and Ukrainian parliament member David Arakhamia said the group was due to be transported to Ukrainian territory “within hours”. The evacuees began the journey out of their region in bus convoys on Friday, and the estimated 2,000 residents were offered the choice of travelling to Ukrainian- or Russian-held territory, or remaining in the city with replenished food and medical supplies.
Belarusian state media reported the evacuees were met in Gomel by rescue workers, medical teams and Red Cross volunteers, and Al Jazeera’s Audrey MacAlpine said “a lot of preparation” was underway ahead of their arrival at the border site. The BBC said residents of the frontline city had been trapped without food, water and electricity, with many resorting to cooking garden weeds to survive, as planes carrying the residents landed in Gomel on Saturday morning.
Ceasefire timing and options
The ceasefire in Ukraine’s southern Kherson region began at 3 a.m. Tuesday and was expected to continue through Sunday evening, and the White House said it was brokered with help from U.S. first lady Melania Trump.
The BBC said residents had a four-hour window to leave before a convoy of 25 buses, with space for 750 people, left the town on Friday afternoon, along with ambulances for people with limited mobility.
Ukrainian human rights ombudsman Dmytro Lubinets told the BBC that those who decided to stay “will receive all the necessary humanitarian assistance,” while Russia said it had prepared “dozens of tonnes” of aid for residents who did not wish to leave.
David Arakhamia told the BBC, “The last, fourth plane landed in Gomel (Belarus),” and he added that in a few hours all Ukrainian citizens evacuated from Oleshky, together with the Ukrainian delegation, would be on Ukrainian territory.
The BBC also said escape from Oleshky had been highly dangerous because the routes out had been mined and subject to drone attack, and one resident described walking through 24km (15 miles) of minefields to get to safety.
War continues, energy hit
Even as the Oleshky truce continued, Moscow and Kyiv traded attacks elsewhere, and the governor of Russia’s Bryansk region said a Ukrainian drone killed two people and injured five in the settlement of Klimovo on Saturday. Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said overnight Russian attacks hit Ukrainian power plants, railway infrastructure and a gas distribution facility, and he said the strikes left more than 200,000 households without power in the Dnipro region and 80,000 more without power in the Kyiv region. Zelenskyy renewed his call for partners to supply Ukraine with more interceptors, and he wrote, “Russians are attacking our energy infrastructure every single day”.
The BBC said the Oleshky ceasefire required close cooperation with Yana Lantratova, and it quoted Lubinets saying he carried out that cooperation “in the interests of saving lives”. The Al Jazeera report said Pope Leo XIV pressed Russian and Ukrainian leaders to allow aid deliveries and civilian evacuations, while it also quoted Shapovalova saying “The Russian military provided safe passage and safe corridors for the evacuees and were demining the roads near Oleshky.”