Emotional reunions at the border
People evacuated from the devastated Russian-occupied city of Oleshky crossed from Belarus into Ukraine's Chernihiv region, in scenes the BBC described as raw with emotion. Families cried as they met relatives they had not seen for years. Some elderly residents were so weak that they had to be carried on stretchers.
Sisters Dasha and Anya Palii ran across the tarmac toward the bus carrying their father, Mykhailo, according to the BBC. Their mother, Zhanna, held his face and stroked his forehead repeatedly. He promised her that they would now get married.
Another couple, Tetiana and Volodymyr, arrived with their cat. They told the BBC their home was burned down in the first year of the war and that they had been living in a neighbour's abandoned house. They now have to decide where to go and how to rebuild.
How the evacuation worked
Ukrainian military positions are only 5km (3.1 miles) from Oleshky, but evacuees could not simply cross the line. According to the BBC, they first traveled through Russian-occupied territory to southern Russia, then flew to Belarus and were driven across Ukraine's northern border on Saturday.
Residents had a four-hour window on Friday to leave before a convoy of 25 buses, with space for 750 people, departed in the afternoon. Ambulances accompanied the buses for people with limited mobility; the BBC noted the convoy had as many ambulances as coaches. Ukraine's human rights ombudsman, Dmytro Lubinets, said the oldest evacuee was 94 and the youngest was one.
A humanitarian ceasefire took effect across Kherson region on Tuesday, giving the area its first few days of peace in four years, the BBC reported. It allowed the road out of the city to be cleared of mines and aid to be delivered. Ceasefire measures are set to remain in place until the end of Sunday, 1 November.
Conditions inside Oleshky
Before the war, Oleshky had 24,000 residents. Those who remained were trapped in a frontline city without food, water and electricity, and many resorted to cooking garden weeds to survive, according to the BBC.
Leaving was extremely dangerous because routes out were mined and subject to drone attack. Bridges across the nearby Dnipro River have been destroyed, and sources told the BBC the riverbank is mined. One resident who fled three weeks earlier told the BBC he walked through 24km (15 miles) of minefields.
Several hundred people are understood to have stayed despite the devastation and the lack of gas, electricity and running water. One relative told the BBC that some older residents did not want to leave.
Diplomacy, criticism and continuing war
Zelensky thanked US First Lady Melania Trump for her efforts in brokering the local ceasefire. In a post on X, he said "all of them will receive the assistance they need" and urged government agencies and local authorities to help evacuees adapt.
Lubinets and his Russian counterpart, Yana Lantratova, traveled to Oleshky together on Friday from Armiansk in Russian-occupied Crimea. The BBC said Lubinets is the first Ukrainian official to visit Russian-occupied parts of Ukraine since the war began. He has said he cooperated with Lantratova in the interests of saving lives, though some in Ukraine have recoiled at seeing him beside a representative of the occupying power. Russia said it had prepared "dozens of tonnes" of aid for residents who stay, including food, medicine, hygiene products and generator fuel.
The war has not paused elsewhere. Zelensky said Russia attacked Ukrainian energy infrastructure, including substations, thermal power plants and gas facilities. Ukraine's military said it hit a major Russian producer of missile fuel in the Rostov region. Negotiators from Ukraine, Russia and the US are due to resume ceasefire talks in Abu Dhabi in early November, after discussions were suspended earlier this year because of the Iran war.
