Hundreds of Ukrainian civilians who had been trapped in the Russian-occupied front-line city of Oleshky were evacuated on Friday as a part of the ceasefire first lady Melania Trump recently brokered.
The town itself is located in the southern Ukrainian region of Kherson, and it has been under continuous Russian occupation since the first months of war. A small fraction of the pre-war population remains in the city, and the near-constant threat of artillery or drone attacks, on top of mines being placed, has made evacuations challenging. The threats have limited people’s movements and time outside, while they are also facing a lack of food.
“At this stage, those who wished to leave Oleshky have had the opportunity to do so and are now on their way to Ukraine,” Ukrainian Human Rights Commissioner Dmytro Lubinets said. “Humanitarian aid has been delivered. The convoys have split up, and I am now heading back to Ukraine.”
Ukrainian Prime Minister Serhii Koretsky announced in Parliament Friday that 527 people were being evacuated, but then he retracted the comment.
In this photo provided by the Office of the Ombudsman of Ukraine, Ukraine’s Ombudsman Dmytro Lubinets, center right, and Russian Ombudsman Yana Lantratova speak with journalists before departing for Oleshky to evacuate local residents to a safe area during a local ceasefire linked to a humanitarian mission in Ukraine’s Kherson region, Friday, Oct. 30, 2026. (Office of the Ombudsman of Ukraine via AP) CORRECTION: change position of Dmytro Lubinets from center left to center right
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In this photo provided by the Office of the Ombudsman of Ukraine, Ukraine’s Ombudsman Dmytro Lubinets, center right, and Russian Ombudsman Yana Lantratova speak with journalists before departing for Oleshky to evacuate local residents to a safe area during a local ceasefire linked to a humanitarian mission in Ukraine’s Kherson region, Friday, Oct. 30, 2026. (Office of the Ombudsman of Ukraine via AP) CORRECTION: change position of Dmytro Lubinets from center left to center right
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In this photo provided by the Office of the Ombudsman of Ukraine, Ukraine’s Ombudsman Dmytro Lubinets, center right, and Russian Ombudsman Yana Lantratova speak with journalists before departing for Oleshky to evacuate local residents to a safe area during a local ceasefire linked to a humanitarian mission in Ukraine’s Kherson region, Friday, Oct. 30, 2026. (Office of the Ombudsman of Ukraine via AP)
Lubinets, the first Ukrainian official to visit occupied territory since the full-scale invasion in 2022, led the delegation to Oleshky to facilitate the evacuation efforts. Russia’s ombudswoman and lead representative on the mission, Yana Lantratova, was there for the Russian side. They took videos together and thanked one another.
The buses carrying hundreds of civilians will take a circuitous route. After leaving Oleshky, the plan is the buses will drive through the Russian city of Anapa, fly to Belarus, and then return to Ukraine by bus, given the threats along the front lines. Ukrainians have expressed concerns that the civilians in the area may be worried about trusting the Russian forces to evacuate them, concerned that the Russians would make it difficult for them to get back to Ukraine.
Prior to the war, roughly 24,000 people lived in Oleshky, while there were only an estimated 1,700 to 2,000 residents there before the evacuations.
Russian media outlets have been invited to cover the ceasefire from Oleshky, but only one U.S. news outlet, Newsmax, is present.
Lantratova, specifically, has been accused by Ukrainian authorities of facilitating the illegal transfer — or kidnapping — of two Ukrainian children from Kherson to Russian families. One of the children, a baby less than a year old, was taken in by the leader of a Russian political party, Sergei Mironov, according to the New York Times.
Russia is believed to have kidnapped thousands of children, separating them from their parents or taking children who lost loved ones or their guardians in the war, and brought them back to Russian-occupied Ukraine or Russia.
“We have orchestrated a situation where, despite what the Russians say, we have two government officials standing in Ukraine, and one of them is accused of some of the most heinous crimes against children personally involved in the large scale process of it, and these smaller scale, the intimate crimes of taking these children, and the Ukrainian ombudsman is thanking her and they’re getting along,” Kristina Hook, a nonresident senior fellow with the Atlantic Council, told the Washington Examiner.
Hook added, “The Ukrainians will go through this kabuki theater for the chance of getting their people out, and I think that that’s really worth noting.”
While the ceasefire in Oleshky got underway, both Russia and Ukraine carried out various attacks against one another elsewhere.
On Thursday morning, a Russian drone struck a Ukrainian passenger train in Dnipro, killing 15 people and injuring more than a dozen others, authorities said. Russian forces launched four drones in the attack, three of which were downed by Ukrainian air defense systems before reaching their target. Another 12 people were killed in other attacks in Ukraine.
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Russia then blamed Ukraine for an attack on Friday that targeted the Novokuibyshevsk oil refinery in the Samara region. Ukraine did not immediately take credit for the attack, though it came on the heels of the train strike and others. Ukraine had briefly paused its strategy of targeting Russia’s oil refineries, knowing that President Donald Trump had asked them to do so publicly.
The Trump administration is attempting to negotiate an end to the war, but has been unsuccessful during the last two years. Russian leader Vladimir Putin is the only person involved who can unilaterally end the war.
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[ H/T Washington Examiner ]
