Ukraine War | Evacuation of Oleschky completed

Dogs and cats first: The pets of the evacuees from Oleschky reached Ukraine before their owners, who followed shortly afterwards. Photo: IMAGO/ITAR-TASS The evacuation mission in Oleschky has been completed. Photos and videos from Ukrainian authorities on Saturday show how residents of the front-line town in the Kherson region, which has been embattled for over four years, cross the Belarusian-Ukrainian border in the Chernihiv region. Shortly before, the pets of the evacuees had already reached Kiev-controlled territory.

For the evacuees, mostly older people, this marks the end of a long journey for the time being. The day before, they were taken by bus from Oleshky, opposite Kherson, to the Russian Black Sea town of Anapa, from where they were flown to Gomel in southern Belarus, not far from the Ukrainian border.

The evacuation went smoothly, wrote Ukrainian human rights officer Dmytro Lubinets on Telegram. There were no filtrations at the Russian border, nor were the phones searched. The people will be given all the necessary help, wrote President Volodymyr Zelensky, who called on the authorities to “work efficiently” to help the evacuees settle in.

There are currently no official figures on how many people were evacuated from Oleschky. According to journalist Alex Salvi, who was on site for the right-wing conservative US news site "Newsmax", eleven buses are said to have left for Ukraine and four buses for Russia. If the buses were full, 550 people would have decided to evacuate to the Kiev-controlled area of ​​Ukraine and 250 to Russia.

According to Russian media reports, there are said to have been further evacuation trips to Russia and Crimea that were not part of the joint Russian-Ukrainian operation.

According to observers, there were still 1,500 to 2,000 civilians in Oleschky at the time of the ceasefire. According to the Telegram channel Insider UA, half or even more of the remaining residents would have decided to stay in the city and therefore under Russian control. Most of the once 24,000 residents left Oleschky immediately after the start of the war or after the Kakhovka dam burst in 2023, when large parts of the city were flooded.

Even though fighting is expected to resume in full intensity after the ceasefire expires on Sunday evening, both sides describe the evacuation mission as a success. Lubinets, who was in good spirits with his Russian counterpart, Yana Lantratova, expressed the hope that the experiences from the humanitarian mission in Oleshky "will form the basis for a new mechanism for dealing with complex humanitarian crises, with people's security and the right to life at its core."

Oleschky's experience has shown “that such agreements make it possible to help people even under the most difficult conditions. It is important to continue this work where the civilian population is waiting for support," Lantratova praised her Ukrainian colleague.

There was also praise for the two human rights commissioners from the Kremlin. »A good dialogue developed between them. This is important. They slowly start to trust each other. This is good for human rights work,” said Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov.

In addition to a lot of praise, there is criticism of Lubinets and the ceasefire, especially from the pro-war corner in Ukraine. On Facebook, the journalist and historian Vakhtang Kipiani railed against Lubinets, especially because of his joint appearances with Lantratova. The human rights commissioner would set wrong priorities and serve Russia's interests, Kipiani further claimed.

Many war bloggers also couldn't find much positive in the ceasefire. Russia would use the break to consolidate its positions in the region, relieve soldiers and deliver ammunition. Previous ceasefires had failed because of precisely these (both sides) accusations. The “Bild” in particular had fueled the assumption with unsubstantiated reporting. Many Ukrainian commentators jumped on this. Their common conclusion is: "The ceasefire benefits Russia, not Ukraine - that is Moscow's plan." As mentioned, there is no evidence for this.

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