Civilians trapped in Russian-occupied Oleshky have no safe way out. Ukraine says it’s negotiating with Moscow to bring them directly to Ukrainian-controlled territory.

Ukraine’s parliamentary human rights commissioner, Dmytro Lubinets, said Russia and Ukraine had “begun working out the final details” of a plan to evacuate residents of Oleshky, also known as Aleshki, in the Russian-occupied part of the Kherson region.According to Ukrainska Pravda, Lubinets stressed that residents would not simply be taken out of Oleshky but brought directly “to territory controlled by the Ukrainian government.”“So there are still some difficult issues, let’s put it that way, but I hope we’ll all see concrete results from these talks soon,” he said.Lubinets said talks with Russian officials were taking place every day. “I can’t share many details, but I’ll put it this way: In my view, we’ve made as much progress as possible,” he said.Lubinets said there were also plans to evacuate residents of six nearby towns and villages. Preliminary estimates put the total number of people to be evacuated at 6,000, including up to 200 children.Russia occupied Oleshky at the start of its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022. By the fall of 2026, conditions there had become dire — residents were left without food, electricity, or adequate medical care. They cannot leave the city safely. Pope Leo XIV appealed to Russian President Vladimir Putin over the situation in Oleshky. In a phone call, the pope called for a ceasefire to allow humanitarian aid deliveries and let residents evacuate voluntarily and safely.At Meduza, we are committed to transparency about our use of artificial intelligence in the newsroom. The story you’re reading was written by one of our living, breathing journalists and translated from Russian using an AI model configured to follow our strict editorial standards. This translation process is the result of extensive testing and refinements to ensure our English-language coverage is timely and accurate. A Meduza editor reviews every draft before publication.If you find any errors in this translation, please contact us at [email protected].To read Meduza’s exclusive content in English, please subscribe to our newsletter.