A truce and a humanitarian operation
Ukraine's human rights commissioner, Dmytro Lubinets, announced on Saturday, 31 October, that residents of Oleshky had crossed the border after a humanitarian operation was completed without setbacks. The operation, mediated by the United States, combined a ceasefire, the delivery of aid and the evacuation of civilians from the town, which is under Russian control. Lubinets said the truce lasts until 22:59 local time on Sunday, 1 November, and called it the longest ceasefire observed by both sides since 2022. He credited US first lady Melania Trump with coordinating the operation. The UN human rights monitoring mission in Ukraine said no emergency supplies had reached the town since 26 May, and Kherson governor Oleksandr Prokudin had earlier said Russians were keeping about 2,000 people there as hostages, almost 50 of them children.
- Convoy of 25 buses reaches Oleshky and evacuations begin
- Lubinets announces that Oleshky residents have crossed into Ukraine
- Ceasefire scheduled to expire at 22:59 local time
Convoy and departures
A convoy of 25 buses, along with ambulances, trucks and other vehicles, reached the town early on Friday, 30 October, after mines were cleared from the roads into and out of Oleshky. AP reported that evacuees began leaving the region that day, on the fourth day of the truce. Residents were offered three options: travel to Ukrainian-controlled territory, travel to Russian-controlled territory, or stay with restocked food and medicine. Ukrainian authorities said those heading to Ukraine went through Anapa in southern Russia and then flew to Belarus, while Russia's defence ministry said evacuees were flown in military aircraft with Lubinets to Gomel. Volodymyr Zelensky wrote that Ukrainian citizens had crossed the border in the Chernihiv region, which borders Belarus. Russia's ombudsman Yana Lantratova, the lead Russian representative on the mission, said buses also carried residents who wanted to live in Russia. Trump had posted on Friday that the convoy could safely evacuate more than 750 people, but Moscow and Kyiv have not specified how many people actually left.
Accusations over the truce
Moscow accused Ukrainian forces of breaching the truce. Russian special envoy Rodion Miroshnik said on Telegram that a Ukrainian drone hit a civilian car leaving Oleshky for the village of Radensk to buy food, at the Nechaevsky crossroads. The two occupants, a man and a woman, were injured and taken to the Oleshky district hospital. A Ukrainian military spokesman said the Pivden force grouping was strictly observing the ceasefire in the humanitarian mission area and that Russian provocations had been recorded. Maksym Kravchuk, the grouping's spokesman, accused Moscow of trying to discredit Ukrainian forces. The drone strike is reported as Moscow's allegation.
What remains open
Many residents stayed behind. Lantratova asked for attention for those who remained, some of whom have relatives in hospital while others must care for family. Zelensky said Ukraine hopes humanitarian access to Oleshky will be preserved and that further steps toward de-escalation and real progress toward peace are needed. Lubinets said he hopes the Oleshky experience can become the basis for a new mechanism to respond to complex humanitarian crises and does not remain an isolated case. The truce runs until 22:59 local time on Sunday, 1 November.