Hundreds evacuated from Russian-occupied town of Oleshky arrive in safe Ukrainian land

Hundreds of Ukrainians fleeing Russian-occupied Oleshky under a cease-fire First Lady Melania Trump helped broker were welcomed into safe territory Saturday.Their arrival led to emotional scenes as some families, draped in blue and yellow Ukrainian flags, were reunited after nearly five years apart.Many had been torn apart when Russian troops seized the town in the southern Kherson region at the start of the invasion in 2022.

By September, Oleshky had run out of food, electricity, medicine and other essentials, according to Ukrainian authorities.“It was like I’d escaped from hell,” said Oleksandr, an evacuee.“I didn’t go outside at all … where we were, where we lived, we couldn’t get any food.We just ate whatever people had left in their apartments – canned goods, pickles,” he told CNN.“It was very difficult.

There were a lot of drones.It was hard to move around the streets,” said Ivan Yevhenovych, 48, his hands still shaking as he held a cigarette.

“Since spring, there hasn’t really been any staple food left.”Landmines and drone strikes were obliterating Ukrainian residents daily in Oleshky, a town that had a pre-war population of 24,000, Yevhenovych said.The cease-fire, which Pope Leo XIV also called for, and started on Tuesday and runs through Sunday at 11 p.m.Humanitarian efforts saw roads to Oleshky cleared of mines, aid delivered and buses deployed to evacuate 750 people.“Oleshky proves we can raise humanity above war.

Together, we can build a peaceful planet, a world of promise for our children,” Melania Trump wrote on X.From Oleshky, the evacuees were taken through Crimea, then flew to Belarus before being bused into Ukraine’s Chernihiv region, where they were welcomed with borscht and other Ukrainian food.“We’re waiting for all this to end, for peace to come, and for victory,” said Larisa, a 54-year-old evacuee who lost a third of her body weight during the occupation.She reunited with her husband Dmytro Saturd...