Ukraine and Russia have agreed on technical details for the evacuation of about 6,000 civilians from the Oleshky area, including an estimated 200 children. Kyiv is currently waiting for a ceasefire date from the Russian side to begin physical evacuation.
Points of attention
- Ukraine and Russia have reached an agreement on the evacuation of 6,000 civilians, including 200 children, from the Oleshky district to the Kherson region's TOT — Lubinets.
- The evacuation process is awaiting a ceasefire date from the Russian side to initiate the physical evacuation of the civilians.
Ukraine has agreed with Russia on the details of the evacuation of civilians from Oleshki — Lubinets
The Verkhovna Rada Commissioner for Human Rights Dmytro Lubinets said this during a press conference after the presentation of the project "Made in Russia. Taken prisoner."
Regarding Oleshki, we held negotiations on May 15. This concerns not only the evacuation from Oleshki. We named several settlements. In fact, it is around Oleshki. We are talking about the evacuation of approximately 6,000 Ukrainian civilians, including, according to our information, 200 Ukrainian children. As of today, we have technically discussed all the issues. We are waiting for the date from the Russian side when the ceasefire process will be launched and the physical evacuation will begin.
Dmytro Lubinets
Ombudsman of Ukraine
Lubinets clarified that evacuation of people to the territory of Ukraine is planned.
Given that this (evacuation — ed.) is militarily impossible across the river, several options have been proposed. We have found one option that can be implemented fairly quickly, and Ukrainian citizens should first be evacuated directly from these settlements to a relatively safe place, from where they will be picked up by the Ukrainian side and returned to the territory controlled by the Ukrainian government.
The Ombudsman also noted that Oleshki is a humanitarian disaster.
Every day, according to my information, people are not just under threat of death, it happens every day there. That is, people are sitting in basements, there are active hostilities, bombings, drones are used there, food has practically run out there, there is not enough drinking water. In my opinion, this humanitarian catastrophe has been going on there for several months.
The Commissioner recalled that the first appeal to the International Committee of the Red Cross and the Russian side regarding the evacuation of civilians from those settlements was made in early March.
According to Lubinets, the situation has now worsened significantly. He also noted that it is currently impossible to verify how many civilians have already died in Oleshki.
