'Local ceasefire' evacuates about 750 Oleshky residents... Zelenskyy thanks Melania

[Financial News] With a local ceasefire taking effect in Oleshky, a Russian-occupied area in southern Ukraine, following mediation by Melania, wife of U.S. President Donald Trump, about 750 residents who had been stranded in grave danger completed their evacuation and moved to safe areas, including in Ukraine and Russia.

According to the Associated Press, The Kyiv Independent and other foreign media on the 31st (local time), buses carrying Ukrainian residents evacuated from Oleshky crossed into Ukraine that day through the northern region of Chernihiv. The residents who arrived at the scene, Ukrainian flags draped around them, got off the buses and embraced family members and acquaintances, weeping.
The evacuation was carried out the previous day in a large-scale humanitarian operation involving 25 buses, nine ambulances and special buses for patients with limited mobility. Residents who left Oleshky first gathered in Armyansk in northern Crimea, then split up according to their preferred destinations. Those who chose to go to Ukraine traveled via Anapa, a Russian city on the Black Sea coast, and flew to Gomel in southeastern Belarus before returning to their country. Those headed for Russia moved to temporary accommodations in Simferopol, Crimea.
For security reasons and to protect the safety of residents who remained, Ukraine kept the specific arrival point and number of evacuees confidential. A Ukrainian official said, however, that evacuees of various ages had arrived, from a baby who had just turned one to a 94-year-old. Relief tents and coffee stands were set up near the border, along with pet food for animals brought by the evacuees.
Oleshky resident Lyudmila Burychenko, 39, said, “Drones had been flying over the village for the past few months, and as soon as the opportunity to evacuate arose, I decided to leave.” Another resident said, “It was hard to leave the home we had spent 20 years building, but I was afraid my son-in-law would be conscripted into the Russian army.”

In a statement that day, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy confirmed the residents’ safe return, saying, “During the ceasefire, mines on the access routes to Oleshky were cleared, and relief supplies—including food, medicine and fuel for generators—were delivered to residents who chose to stay there.” He added, “I thank the U.S. side and Mrs. Melania Trump for their efforts to mediate,” and stressed that “further measures to ease tensions and tangible progress toward peace are needed.” Melania had earlier announced on X, formerly Twitter, that at least 750 residents had been evacuated.
Oleshky, across the Dnieper River from the Ukrainian city of Kherson, was occupied by Russian forces shortly after the war began in February 2022. Its population, which had stood at 24,000 before the war, has recently fallen to around 1,700–2,000. As fighting between the two sides intensified, residents trapped in the “kill zone” near the front line faced a severe humanitarian crisis, without electricity, gas or drinking water. They had to travel along mine-ridden “roads of death” to find food and, with little to eat, reportedly survived by gathering wild plants and catching pigeons.
The local ceasefire took effect on the morning of the 27th and will remain in force until 10:59 p.m. on November 1 Moscow time (9:59 p.m. Kyiv time). Davyd Arakhamia, parliamentary leader of Ukraine’s ruling party, called the move “the biggest de-escalation measure since the war began in 2022.” Dmytro Lubinets, Ukraine’s human rights commissioner, and Yana Lantratova, Russia’s human rights commissioner, who each led evacuation operations on the ground, proposed making humanitarian missions coordinated by Melania a regular occurrence.


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