Evacuees to enter Ukraine via Russia and Belarus
Reports from Russian-occupied Oleshky confirm that evacuations are now under way as part of a US-brokered localized ceasefire to provide humanitarian aid to the city’s residents.
Ukraine’s prime minister, Sergii Koretskyi, said 527 people are expected to return to Ukraine-controlled territories. Speaking to parliament, he added that the evacuees would travel through Russia to Belarus, where they would then enter Ukraine through the Kyiv and Chernihiv regions, according to remarks quoted by Interfax.
The Russian human rights commissioner, Yana Lantratova, claimed that some people wanted to be evacuated to Russia, too.
A photograph accompanying the reports showed a man walking across a road beneath anti-drone nets stretched over a street in Oleshky during the local ceasefire related to the humanitarian aid mission. The image was credited to Evgeniy Maloletka of the Associated Press.
Oleshky is a city in Ukraine’s Kherson region. The evacuation is being carried out under a localized ceasefire that the US brokered to allow humanitarian aid to reach the occupied city’s residents.