Evacuation Corridor Opens in Oleshky

A ceasefire, brokered by US First Lady Melania Trump, has been in force in the entire frontline region of Kherson since Tuesday, allowing for the road out of Oleshky to be demined.

Residents wishing to leave have a four-hour window to do so. An evacuation convoy of 25 buses will allow up to 750 people to leave Oleshky until 14:00 (12:00 GMT), along with ambulances for people with limited mobility.

Ukraine's human rights ombudsman, Dmytro Lubinets, stated that everyone who wishes to leave Oleshky will be given the opportunity to do so safely, while those who decide to remain will be able to stay and will receive all the necessary humanitarian assistance.

Evacuees will first have to travel into Russian-occupied territory and then to the southern Russian city of Anapa. They will board a Russian government plane to Gomel in Belarus, and then drive across the border into Ukraine's Chernihiv region.

Lubinets and his Russian counterpart, Yana Lantratova, travelled to Oleshky together on Friday. Lantratova later posted a video on social media from the town, saying people were given the chance to form two groups depending on whether they wanted to be taken to Russian-controlled territory or to Ukraine.

The ceasefire is due to be in force until the end of Sunday, 1 November. It has provided the first few days of peace in the Kherson region since the start of Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.