Ukrainian Delegation Reaches Oleshky as Evacuation Convoy Enters Russian-Held City

A Ukrainian delegation reached Oleshky on Friday morning as a humanitarian convoy carrying 25 buses and ambulances entered the Russian-held city to distribute food, deliver medicine and ferry out residents who chose to leave. Ukrainian and Russian officials coordinated the effort on the ground, with Ukraine's human rights ombudsman, Dmytro Lubinets, working alongside his Russian counterpart, Yana Lantratova. Kyrylo Budanov, head of Ukraine's presidential office, posted that the humanitarian operation was under way in Oleshky; he was not part of the delegation in the city.

Oleshky sits on the Russian-occupied bank of the Dnipro River across from Kherson, roughly 3 miles (5km) inside Ukrainian-held territory. Russian troops seized the city in the opening days of the full-scale invasion in February 2022. It was badly flooded after the Kakhovka dam upriver was destroyed in June 2023, and residents have faced months of food and medical shortages since. Authorities and volunteers put the remaining population at about 2,000, including roughly 50 children. A localized ceasefire in the Kherson region allowed the roads out of the city to be de-mined so the convoy could operate.

Evacuees bound for Ukraine face a long route out: they travel to the southern Russian city of Anapa, then on to Belarus, and by bus across the border into Ukraine's Chernihiv region. Davyd Arakhamia, a lawmaker with President Volodymyr Zelenskyy's Servant of the People party who joined the delegation to Oleshky, said some people were traveling to Anapa. "From there, they will fly by plane to Belarus, and then travel by bus to their homes," he said. Reports before the operation indicated that more than 500 people wanted to reach Ukrainian territory, but the number who actually boarded the convoy was not disclosed.

The convoy arrived under a ceasefire that U.S. first lady Melania Trump said she helped broker, one of few instances of cooperation between the warring sides. On Friday the Kremlin called it a special case that was "difficult to extrapolate" to the broader search for a peace settlement. Lubinets, who was on the ground for the operation, said it marked the first time since 2022 that a ceasefire had been established across such an extensive stretch of the frontline and held for a comparable period.

Several hundred residents, most of them older, chose to remain in Oleshky. Volunteers who stay in contact with people there report Russian military personnel in the city, checking empty houses and in some cases occupying them. Ksenia Arkhipova, a volunteer who formerly lived in Oleshky, told the Associated Press that Russian personnel are also pressing local residents to evacuate to Russia rather than Ukraine. Lubinets said of those staying, "I've been told that it's their own choice," adding, "At the very least, we'll do what we can to ensure that somehow humanitarian aid gets through."

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