A reunion 1,711 days in the making
Dmytro stood near the Ukrainian-Belarusian border on Saturday, watching the road for the bus carrying his wife Larisa, whom he had not seen in 1,711 days. The couple's daughter had been gotten out earlier, but Larisa stayed behind in Oleshky, their hometown in southern Ukraine, fearing that a Russian military checkpoint would stop her during filtration, the often violent questioning Ukrainians underwent before being allowed to reach Ukrainian-held areas.[S1]
Hundreds of people, along with many pets, arrived in Ukraine on Saturday afternoon after leaving the frontline town under a ceasefire that Pope Leo XIV called for and that first lady Melania Trump helped negotiate. President Volodymyr Zelensky announced the arrivals on Telegram and thanked Trump for her mediation, describing the situation in Oleshky as a genuine humanitarian catastrophe on territory temporarily occupied by Russia.[S1][S2][S3][S4][S5][S6][S7]
Dmytro, whose surname cannot be published for security reasons, serves in the Ukrainian military, a fact that made Larisa vulnerable once Russia took control of Oleshky. She remained in the town hoping for a miracle, and by her family's account her life there became a nightmare.[S1]
Flood, fighting and hunger in Oleshky
In 2023, flooding swept through Oleshky following the failure of the Nova Kakhovka Dam close by, an event attributed most plausibly to a Russian detonation. Reports indicated that several hundred residents lost their lives in the waters, and the town suffered severe damage. The authorities installed by Russia showed themselves either incapable of or unwilling to pay for reconstruction. More devastation came later, during years of heavy combat in the surrounding region.[S1]
The humanitarian situation worsened sharply in recent months. Ukrainian authorities reported in September that the town had run out of food and other supplies, with no electricity, gas or medicine, and accounts from that period said residents were surviving on grass and weeds.[S1]
Andriy Zhydenko, director of the Chernihiv Regional Hospital, waited at the border with his staff to treat the arrivals. He said the effects of long-term malnutrition would be a central concern, because people who have starved for so long must be fed gradually and too much food too quickly could be dangerous. He described patients with injuries, stroke survivors and people with limited mobility, and said his whole staff had wanted to come, adding that the evacuees had suffered greatly and that there is no humanity there.[S1]
A long and dangerous route out
According to the Institute for the Study of War, a US-based monitor of conflicts, around 40% of Oleshky's roughly 24,000 prewar residents managed to reach areas held by Ukraine during the early phase of the fighting, before escape routes closed. Thousands more have departed in the time since, yet a large number remain, whether because they could not leave or chose not to.[S1]
Zhanna Ptakhova and her daughters Elizaveta and Daria Paliy were among those who got out early. Ptakhova's husband and the girls' father remained in Oleshky to look after their home until the family could return safely, which never happened. Ptakhova said conditions there were terrible, with no electricity, gas or heat, and that he adapted their house to a primitive way of life, building a stove, raising chickens, planting a garden and surviving through his own hard work. After three years apart, the family was to be reunited.[S1]
Routes into Oleshky are heavily mined and strewn with drone and vehicle debris, and crossing the Dnipro River straight into Ukrainian-held territory is not possible. Ukraine's ombudsman, Dmytro Lubinets, traveled to Oleshky to escort the evacuees out himself, becoming the first senior Ukrainian official to openly visit areas under Russian control since the war began. After a two-day demining operation finished on Thursday, those wishing to leave gathered on Friday and passed through occupied Crimea to Anapa in Russia's Krasnodar region, then flew from Anapa to Gomel in Belarus, according to the Russian Defense Ministry and Ukrainian officials.[S1]
