GOMEL, Belarus — Four planes carrying residents evacuated from the Russian-occupied Ukrainian town of Oleshky landed in the Belarusian city of Gomel on Saturday, the Belarusian state news agency Belta and a senior Ukrainian official said, bringing the evacuees to the final leg of their journey home to Ukrainian-held territory.
Source: Reuters
“The last, fourth plane landed in Gomel,” said David Arakhamia, a top Ukrainian peace negotiator and close ally of President Volodymyr Zelenskiy. “In a few hours, all Ukrainian citizens evacuated from Oleshky together with a Ukrainian delegation will be on Ukrainian territory.” Belta later reported that a convoy of buses carrying the residents had departed from Gomel airport.
The group was met in Gomel by rescue workers, medical teams and Red Cross volunteers, Belta reported, according to the Associated Press. Ukraine's human rights commissioner Dmytro Lubinets accompanied the Ukraine-bound group, Russia's Defence Ministry said.
Source: Associated Press
The long way home: Crimea, Anapa, Belarus, then Ukraine
The evacuees leaving for Ukraine had to take a complicated route because the front line runs just a few kilometres from Oleshky itself. They first travelled by bus via Crimea to the Russian Black Sea town of Anapa, before flying to Belarus, from where they will continue to Ukraine via a border crossing, Belta said. A day earlier, the same residents had reached Armyansk in northern Crimea and split into two convoys — one bound for Russia, the other starting the long way home to Ukraine.
Awaaz Punjab reported on Friday evening that Oleshky's evacuees had reached Crimea and split into Ukraine-bound and Russia-bound convoys as the first joint humanitarian mission of the war wound up. Read the earlier story
The estimated 2,000 remaining residents of Oleshky were offered the choice of travelling to Ukrainian- or Russian-held territory, or remaining in the city with replenished food and medical supplies. Ukrainian officials have said around 1,700 people remained in the town, from a pre-war population of about 24,000. Neither Russia nor Ukraine has specified how many people chose to leave, but US First Lady Melania Trump, whom the White House said helped broker the localised truce, posted on Friday that the humanitarian convoy could safely evacuate more than 750 people. Russia's ombudswoman Yana Lantratova said buses also transported Oleshky residents who wanted to live in Russia.
A truce that has held since Tuesday
The local ceasefire in Oleshky, in Ukraine's southern Kherson region, took effect early on Tuesday and is expected to continue through Sunday evening. It has been holding without violations, according to both Ukrainian and Russian officials, and has allowed the sides to de-mine roads and bring food, medicines and other supplies into the town, whose remaining residents faced acute shortages after years of fighting.
What happens next is the final border crossing: Arakhamia said the evacuees would be on Ukrainian territory within hours of the last plane landing. Whether residents who stayed in Oleshky will get another chance to leave before the ceasefire expires on Sunday night has not been announced by either side.