Residents leave Russian-occupied Oleshky in evacuation operation

Some residents of Oleshky, a Russian-occupied town in southern Ukraine ravaged by food and medicine shortages, left on Friday during a rare ceasefire brokered by the United States. Captured by Russia in 2022 and caught in the so-called "kill zone" near the front line, residents had faced supply shortages for months, with some being forced to hunt and eat pigeons, former residents said. To display this content from YouTube, you must enable advertisement tracking and audience measurement. One of your browser extensions seems to be blocking the video player from loading. To watch this content, you may need to disable it on this site. Cover image: Evacuations under way in Oleshky - Emmanuelle Chaze reporting from Kyiv (October 30, 2026) © France 24 03:12 The fragile ceasefire – announced by US First Lady Melania Trump last week to pave the way for evacuations and deliveries of humanitarian aid – is due to end on Sunday evening. Ukrainian and Russian officials visited the town together on Friday, delivering aid and marshalling those who wanted to leave. After hours there, both sides said they had left with convoys of people – some heading to Russia, others on a journey back to Kyiv-controlled parts of Ukraine via Russia and Belarus. "The Ukrainian delegation, along with the evacuated residents of Oleshky, set off for Anapa," Ukrainian negotiator David Arakhamia said on Friday, referring to a southern Russian city on the Black Sea coast. "From there, they will fly to Belarus and then travel home by bus," Arakhamia said. Moscow said the operation had been completed "without any incidents". "The humanitarian mission in Oleshky is concluding," Russia's human rights ombudsman Yana Lantratova said in a video post on Telegram. "Everything went smoothly," she said, saying 25 buses and nine ambulances had been deployed for the evacuations. Neither side disclosed how many people left. The pre-war population of Oleshky has dropped from 24,000 to about 2,000. Read moreAid mission set to enter Ukraine's Oleshky as localised ceasefire holds for third day Now in its fourth day, the truce is the longest pause in fighting anywhere on the front line since Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022. Ukraine's human rights ombudsman Dmytro Lubinets posted videos of himself talking to locals – several of whom thanked him – crying and wiping tears. Groups of residents were seen waiting outside their buildings with bags of belongings ready to leave. "We've been through so much here in these five years," one woman said in images broadcast on Ukrainian TV. "If we had our health, maybe we'd stay there a bit longer, but that's it. We just want to be with our children," said another elderly woman preparing to evacuate. Ukraine: Ceasefire holds for its first 30 hours in occupied Oleshky To display this content from YouTube, you must enable advertisement tracking and audience measurement. One of your browser extensions seems to be blocking the video player from loading. To watch this content, you may need to disable it on this site. Cover image: © France 24 01:55 Refinery attacks Previous partial ceasefires between Ukraine and Russia – for instance, around Orthodox Easter – have been marred by accusations of violations. The recent respite has also given residents in the major southern Ukrainian city of Kherson relief from daily drone attacks. The truce has held despite unabated attacks elsewhere in Ukraine. Read moreAt least 13 killed in 'horrific' Russian drone strike at Ukraine train station On Thursday, a drone strike on a train station in the city of Dnipro in central Ukraine killed at least 15 people, while an attack on the northern city of Chernigiv killed two teenage girls. Russia meanwhile said Ukraine had resumed its attacks on Russian oil refineries after a brief pause following criticism of the strike campaign by US President Donald Trump. Videos on Russian Telegram channels showed smoke billowing from an oil refinery in Russia's Samara region, following a drone attack overnight. Trump had been pressuring Kyiv for weeks to stop such attacks, blaming them for the rising cost of diesel. The latest salvos come as Russia and Ukraine are due to meet next month with US envoys in the United Arab Emirates in a bid to revive talks towards ending Europe's worst conflict since World War II. No date has yet been set for the Abu Dhabi meeting, but Zelensky said Ukraine wanted it to take place before the potential three-way talks between the Russian, US and Chinese leaders. (FRANCE24 with AFP)