Residents evacuated from Russian-occupied Oleshky in Kherson Oblast reached Ukrainian-controlled territory on October 31, 2026, after a 19-hour journey that ended at the Ukraine-Belarus border in Chernihiv Oblast.
A long route home
The evacuees travelled to Armiansk in occupied Crimea, then to Anapa in Russia’s Krasnodar Krai. Four planes flew them to Gomel in Belarus before they were brought into Ukrainian-controlled territory. Officials did not release an exact figure, though Kyiv Independent reporters described “hundreds of people,” and a US journalist reported about 750 registered evacuees, with 11 buses headed to Ukraine and four to Russia.
From 94 to one
Ombudsman Dmytro Lubinets said the oldest evacuee was 94 and the youngest had just turned one. He called it “an extraordinarily important moment” and said: “We are not stopping at this mission.”
A rare ceasefire
The evacuation was made possible by a temporary, US-mediated local ceasefire, with mediation by US First Lady Melania Trump. Lubinets said it would last until 11 p.m. on November 1, the longest halt to fighting in any area since the 2022 full-scale invasion.
A town under blockade
Oleshky had about 24,000 residents before the war. By October, roughly 2,000 remained, living under blockade with mined roads and severe shortages of food, water and medicine.
Sources
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