Residents evacuated from the devastated Russian-occupied metropolis of Oleshky have arrived in Belarus and are expected back in Ukraine later on Saturday, authorities have said.
They were taken out on Friday during a native ceasefire brokered by US First Lady Melania Trump.
Planes carrying Oleshky residents landed in the metropolis of Gomel on Saturday morning, according to Belarusian state media and a senior Ukrainian official.
“The last, fourth plane landed in Gomel (Belarus). In a few hours, all Ukrainian citizens evacuated from Oleshky, together with the Ukrainian delegation, will be on Ukrainian territory,” said David Arakhamia, a key Ukrainian official.
The state-owned Belarusian information company Belta reported a bus convoy of Oleshky residents had left Gomel airport and was heading towards the Ukrainian border.
A humanitarian ceasefire took pressure across the frontline area of Kherson on Tuesday, offering the first few days of peace in the space in 4 years, following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
The ceasefire allowed the highway out of Oleshky to be demined and will stay in place until the finish of Sunday 1 November.
Residents had a four-hour window to go away before a convoy of 25 buses, with space for 750 people, left the city on Friday afternoon – along with ambulances for people with restricted mobility.
Several hundred people are understood to have determined to keep in the war-torn metropolis, despite widespread devastation and a lack of fuel, electrical energy and operating water.
Ukraine’s human rights ombudsman Dmytro Lubinets said on Friday morning that those who determined to keep “will receive all the necessary humanitarian assistance”.
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