By Olena Harmash and Anna Voitenko
CHERNIHIV REGION, Ukraine, Oct 31 (Reuters) - Starved and exhausted residents from the Russian-controlled town of Oleshky crossed into Ukraine on Saturday in a major return of civilians under the first humanitarian truce of its kind in more than four years of the war.
The six-day local ceasefire in Oleshky was reached after mediation efforts by US first lady Melania Trump and with the pope's involvement. It is the longest local pause in fighting since Russia's full-scale
invasion in 2022.
"As of now, Ukrainian citizens from Oleshky have crossed the Ukrainian border in the Chernihiv region. All of them will receive the assistance they need," said President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, thanking the US and Melania Trump for mediation.
Ukrainian officials greeted the evacuees with posters "You're not alone" and "We embrace with our hearts."
One evacuee, an elderly man in a wheelchair, told Reuters that he had lost 20 kg over the past year, becoming so weak that he required hospital treatment.
Another resident, Svitlana Yermakova, said that they had to eat grass to survive food shortages.
“We chopped grass and squash ... just to hold on,” she said, adding that she risked riding by bicycle through minefields to a nearby village to get food for herself and her dog, Manila.
COMPLICATED JOURNEY TO UKRAINE
To reach Ukrainian-held territory, Oleshky residents had to take a complicated route to leave the devastated town just a few kilometres away from the front line.
They first travelled by bus via Crimea to the Russian town of Anapa, before flying to Belarus from where they continued to Ukraine.
A video shared by Ukraine's ombudsman showed dozens of Oleshky residents slowly disembarking from a plane at a Belarusian airfield. Many people were elderly.
Some required help to walk, and a few were carried on stretchers or in wheelchairs. They carried minimal luggage – only a bag or two. Dogs were unloaded from the plane in cages.
As several big buses crossed into Ukraine's northern Chernihiv region from Belarus, the residents were greeted by relatives. Many cried. Ambulances lined the street and several large military tents were erected where hot meals, tea and medical aid were provided.
Pet food and water bottles were piled up on several tables.
"We have come a complicated way: from negotiations and agreeing on a ceasefire to delivering humanitarian aid directly to Oleshky and organising the evacuation of civilians," said Dmytro Lubinets, Ukraine's human rights ombudsman.
The ceasefire has been holding since Tuesday without violations, according to both Ukrainian and Russian officials. It has allowed them to de-mine the roads and bring food, medicines and other supplies into the town.
Supply routes to Oleshky were disrupted by fighting and drones. According to some residents, food deliveries were stopped in May, pushing hundreds of people into starvation.
The ceasefire will end on Sunday.
Lubinets said the oldest returning resident was 94, while the youngest was a baby just over one. He gave no exact numbers on how many people returned to Ukraine.
Some residents decided to go to Russia, while others elected to remain in Oleshky, despite the lack of gas, electricity and running water.
Russian Human Rights Commissioner Yana Lantratova said that living conditions in the town remain difficult, and that she would continue to work with her Ukrainian counterpart Lubinets to help those who stayed.
"The mission has come to an end," she said on Telegram. "We have agreed to carry out regular humanitarian missions, which is a very important step."
Oleshky had a pre-war population of about 24,000. Before the evacuation, an estimated 1,700 remained. The town has been under Russian occupation since the first days of the invasion. It was devastated after the destruction of the Kakhovka Dam in 2023 and the flooding of the nearby areas.
FIGHTING RAGES ON IN OTHER PARTS OF THE FRONT
Despite the ceasefire on the southern Kherson front, fighting raged on in other parts of the front. Both Russia and Ukraine also kept up their drone attacks on each other.
Zelenskiy said that Russia had attacked Ukrainian energy infrastructure, hitting electricity substations, thermal power plants and gas infrastructure.
Ukraine's military said it had hit a major Russian producer of missile fuel in the Rostov region.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Ukrainian and Russian ombudsmen had a good dialogue and had gradually begun to trust each other as they worked together during the Oleshky ceasefire, Russia's Vedomosti reported.
But the Kremlin said on Friday that it was an isolated situation, which was difficult to extrapolate to the broader peace process.
Negotiators from Ukraine, Russia and the US are due to resume talks in Abu Dhabi in early November after discussions were suspended in February following the outbreak of the war in Iran.
(Additional reporting by Valentyn Ogirenko, reporting by Reuters in Moscow and Kyiv; Editing by Joe Bavier, Alex Richardson and Jan Harvey)
