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Emotional scenes were experienced this Saturday in Ukraine when people evacuated from the devastated city of Oleshky, occupied by Russia, crossed from Belarus to the Ukrainian region of Chernihiv.
Families cried as they reunited with relatives they had not seen in years; two sisters ran and screamed as they hugged their father.
Some elderly people were so weak that they were carried on stretchers. They had been trapped in the city, on the front lines, without food, water or electricity, and many had to cook herbs from their gardens to survive.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky thanked US First Lady Melania Trump for her efforts to negotiate a local ceasefire that paved the way for his evacuation this Friday.
Upon arrival, Dasha and Anya Palii ran at full speed down the runway screaming toward the bus carrying their father, Mykhailo.
Her screams and tears reflected immense relief after three years of anguish, fearing never to see him again.
His mother, Zhanna, took Mykhailo's face in her hands and caressed his forehead again and again, as if to check that he was still the same man she had left behind. Finally, he promised her that they would get married.
Tetiana and Volodymyr, an older couple carrying their cat, told BBC News that they were left homeless after their house burned down during the first year of the war. Until now they lived in a neighbor's abandoned house.
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They said they made the decision to leave immediately, but feared their trip would be cut short. Now they have to figure out where to go and how to rebuild their lives.
image source, Reuters
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Ukrainian military positions are located just 5 km from Oleshky, but evacuees first had to travel through territory occupied by Russian troops to southern Russia, from where they were flown to Belarus, before finally being transferred by car across Ukraine's northern border on Saturday.
According to Dmytro Lubinets, Ukraine's human rights ombudsman, the oldest evacuee was 94 years old, while the youngest was only one.
Zelensky stated in a post on the social network
The convoy included as many ambulances as buses. The impact of years trapped between the front lines is reflected on the tired faces of many Oleshky residents, some on crutches, others in wheelchairs.
They have a lot to deal with, especially leaving the place they considered home.
A brief ceasefire and a quick evacuation
A humanitarian ceasefire came into force in the Kherson border region on Tuesday, marking the first days of peace in the area in four years, following Russia's large-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
Before the war, Oleshky housed 24,000 people.
The situation in the city had become so desperate that not only was it extremely difficult to get supplies in, but escape was extremely dangerous because exit routes were mined and subject to drone attacks.
Bridges across the nearby Dnieper River have been destroyed and, according to some sources, the river bank is mined and dangerous.
A resident who fled the city three weeks earlier told the BBC he had walked through 15 miles of minefields to reach safety.
The ceasefire allowed the road leading out of the city to be demined and humanitarian aid to arrive.
Ceasefire measures will remain in force until the end of Sunday, November 1.
Residents were given four hours to leave before a convoy of 25 buses, with capacity for 750 people, left the city on Friday afternoon, along with ambulances for people with reduced mobility.
Several hundred people are believed to have decided to stay in the war-ravaged city, despite widespread destruction and a lack of gas, electricity and running water.
Some older adults did not want to leave, a relative told the BBC.
Lubinets declared Friday morning that those who decide to stay "will receive all necessary humanitarian assistance."
He and his Russian counterpart, Yana Lantratova, traveled together to Oleshky on Friday, departing from Armiansk in the Russian-occupied Crimean peninsula.
Lubinets is the first Ukrainian official since the start of the war to visit Russian-occupied areas of Ukraine.
Zelensky praised him and his team for helping move evacuees to safety.
The Ukrainian president also thanked those who helped make visible the "true humanitarian catastrophe in the Ukrainian territory temporarily occupied by Russia."
The ceasefire has required close cooperation between Lubinets and Lantratova, which Lubinets said was carried out in the interest of saving lives.
But some in Ukraine have been horrified to see him standing next to a representative of the Russian occupying power, which has killed so many residents of the city and made life unbearable for the rest.
Russia announced Thursday that it had prepared "tens of tons" of aid for residents who do not wish to leave, including food, medicine, hygiene products and fuel for generators.
*Additional reporting by George Wright.
This article was originally written in English and we used an artificial intelligence tool to translate it. A BBC journalist reviewed the text before publication. Learn more about how we use AI.
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