Residents evacuated from the devastated Russian-occupied city of Oleshky have arrived in Belarus and are expected back in Ukraine later on Saturday, authorities have said.
They were taken out on Friday during a local ceasefire brokered by US First Lady Melania Trump.
Planes carrying Oleshky residents landed in the city of Gomel on Saturday morning, according to Belarusian state media and a senior Ukrainian official.
“The last, fourth plane landed in Gomel (Belarus). In a few hours, all Ukrainian citizens evacuated from Oleshky, together with the Ukrainian delegation, will be on Ukrainian territory,” said David Arakhamia, a key Ukrainian official.
The state-owned Belarusian news agency Belta reported a bus convoy of Oleshky residents had left Gomel airport and was heading towards the Ukrainian border.
A humanitarian ceasefire took force across the frontline region of Kherson on Tuesday, providing the first few days of peace in the area in four years, following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
The ceasefire allowed the road out of Oleshky to be demined and will remain in place until the end of Sunday 1 November.
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.
Several hundred people are understood to have decided to stay in the war-torn city, despite widespread devastation and a lack of gas, electricity and running water.
Ukraine’s human rights ombudsman Dmytro Lubinets said on Friday morning that those who decided to stay “will receive all the necessary humanitarian assistance”.
