Three Planes Carrying Oleshky Evacuees Land in Belarus in Rare Russia-Ukraine Relief Operation
Residents of Oleshky travelled by bus through Crimea and by air to Belarus on Saturday, in the first joint relief operation of its kind in nearly five years of war.
Highlights
- Three planes carrying residents evacuated from Oleshky landed at Gomel airport in Belarus, the Belta state news agency reported
- The evacuees travelled by bus via the Crimean peninsula to Anapa, then flew to Belarus, and will proceed to Ukraine via a border crossing
- Starving and exhausted residents were evacuated by bus on Friday in a joint relief operation — the first of its kind in four years and eight months of war
- The deal involved US first lady Melania Trump and Pope Leo in its brokering, according to Reuters’ explainer
- The ICRC said its teams had not been asked to provide support but stood ready to help if requested
The journey out of Oleshky
Three planes carrying residents evacuated from the Russian-controlled Ukrainian town of Oleshky landed at Gomel airport in Belarus, the Belta state news agency reported on Saturday Reuters.
The evacuees, wishing to leave for Ukraine, travelled by bus via the Crimean peninsula to the Russian town of Anapa before flying to Belarus, and will proceed to Ukraine via a border crossing, Belta said Reuters. Starving and exhausted residents were evacuated by bus on Friday as part of a joint relief operation by the opposing sides, the first of its kind in four years and eight months of war Reuters.
Why this operation happened now
Reuters’ explainer on the operation notes the unusual cast involved in brokering it: a deal that US first lady Melania Trump was involved in brokering, with the additional involvement of Pope Leo Reuters. Moscow and Kyiv, Reuters reported, are both trying to use the operation to show US President Donald Trump they are serious about his efforts to secure an overall peace settlement — while remaining far apart on the terms for ending the conflict.
The humanitarian caveats
The operation is not running through the usual humanitarian machinery. The International Committee of the Red Cross in Geneva said on Friday its teams had not been asked to provide support, but stood ready to help within its mandate if requested, and a spokesperson for the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said the UN had not received any request to help but was closely monitoring the situation Reuters.
Kremlin statements suggest the operation could be a one-off, and the ceasefire extended to the wider Kherson region expires on Sunday Reuters. It comes against a diplomatic backdrop in which neither side’s stated negotiating position has moved — the wider war continues, as the week’s fighting covered in our report on the Dnipro station strike showed. For the families on those three planes, though, the geopolitics is secondary: they are out.
