Residents from the Russian-occupied town of Oleshky, ravaged by years of war, have crossed into Ukraine, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said, after being evacuated via Belarus, Al Jazeera reports.
The evacuation is part of a major mission under a truce that the White House said United States First Lady Melania Trump helped broker last week.
The residents arrived in Ukraine on Saturday after leaving Oleshky a day earlier and travelling to Belarus. Neither Kyiv nor Moscow have confirmed the exact number of people evacuated.
Ukrainian and Russian officials visited Oleshky together on Friday, delivering aid and marshalling those who wanted to leave in a rare show of cooperation between the warring sides.
“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,” Zelenskyy said in a post on X on Saturday. “I thank the American side and US First Lady Melania Trump for their mediation.”
Four planes carrying the Oleshky evacuees arrived in the southeastern Belarusian town of Gomel on Saturday, said Ukrainian parliament member David Arakhamia.
The group was met in Gomel by rescue workers, medical teams and Red Cross volunteers, Belarusian state media reported.
From there, they were transported to Ukrainian territory.
The civilians from Oleshky, which has suffered from major food and medicine shortages after years of fighting, began the journey out of their region in bus convoys on Friday, under a rare regional truce that is expected to continue through Sunday.
