Residents leave Russian-occupied Oleshky in evacuation operation

Residents from Oleshky, a town in Russian-occupied Ukraine, were evacuated during a ceasefire facilitated by the U.S. They traveled to Anapa, Russia, before heading to Belarus and then back to Ukraine. The ceasefire allowed for humanitarian aid delivery and was the longest pause in fighting since the invasion began in 2022. Many residents faced severe shortages of food and medicine, leading to desperate measures for survival. The evacuation operation was reported to have gone smoothly, with both Ukrainian and Russian officials involved. The pre-war population of Oleshky has drastically decreased from 24,000 to around 2,000.