Russian Oleshky Residents Evacuated as Melania Trump-Backed Truce Holds
KYIV: Residents of a Russian-held town in southern Ukraine, starving and fatigued, were evacuated Friday in a cooperative aid operation by the two opposing sides, the first of its type in four years and eight months of conflict.
A convoy of aid reached the town of Oleshky under a local ceasefire negotiated by US first lady Melania Trump, and some of the residents began a journey to the Russian city of Anapa on their way to Ukrainian-controlled territory, a senior politician from Kyiv, David Arakhamia, said in a post. From there they would fly to Belarus and bus back into Ukraine, he claimed.
It was a startling example of cooperation between the warring sides, but a spokeswoman for Russian President Vladimir Putin said it was “difficult to extrapolate” to the larger search for peace.
Elsewhere, attacks continued, with Russian strikes overnight targeting seven districts of Ukraine as well as the capital Kyiv and the southeastern city of Dnipro, officials said. At least 15 people were murdered on Thursday when a Russian drone hit a rail platform in the Ukrainian city of Dnipro. Oleshky, on the Dnipro River opposite Kherson, suffered extensive damage and severe flooding after the destruction of the huge upriver Kakhovka dam in 2023.
Russia claimed Ukraine has resumed attacks on its oil refineries, despite a plea from U.S. President Donald Trump to stop such attacks, which Trump has blamed for driving up the cost of diesel ahead of midterm elections next week. Ukraine declined to respond.
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