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With the mediation of the First Lady of the United States and the Pope, a six-day humanitarian ceasefire was reached in Russian-occupied Oreshki and residents were helped to evacuate. However, most people remembered that there was no food in the city and they could only eat grass to survive.
More than four years into the Russia-Ukraine war, humanitarian ceasefires have been rare. Residents of the southern city of Oreshki, occupied by Russian troops, evacuated one by one today and cameukraine In the controlled area, some weary residents revealed that they were forced to survive by eating grass in the past.
The six-day partial ceasefire in Oleski came after US First Lady Melania Trump, according to reports by Reuters and Agence France-Presse. Melania Trump mediatedPope also achieved through participationRussia The longest partial ceasefire after a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
Ukrainian and Russian officials jointly went to the area yesterday to distribute supplies and evacuate residents who wanted to leave, a rare show of cooperation between the warring sides.
Residents who arrived in Ukraine by bus spoke to AFP today and described the horror inside the city. “Everyone is cooking hay to eat because there is nothing to eat, so they have to grow their own hay,” said Valera, 29, who asked to give only his first name.
He also said that some residents were forced to shoot and cook dogs to survive. “Many people died, and the streets were strewn with bodies and vehicles. Overall, it was very brutal… and scary.”
Another elderly man in a wheelchair told Reuters he had lost 20 kilograms in the past year and had become so weak that he had to be hospitalised.
AFP correspondents saw residents get off the bus one by one, some wearing Ukrainian flags and crying and hugging their relatives.
Both Ukrainian and Russian officials said there have been no violations since the ceasefire came into effect on 27 October, and both sides have been able to remove landmines from roads and deliver food, medicine and other supplies into the city.
The ceasefire will end on November 1.
Oreshki is located in Kherson Oblast in southern Ukraine. It was captured by Russian troops in 2022. Since then it has been involved in fierce fighting between the two sides. The residents are starving and trapped, making escape difficult.
According to Kiev estimates, there were still about 2,000 inhabitants in Oreshki before the start of this humanitarian operation, which is far fewer than the 24,000 inhabitants before Russia’s invasion in 2022.
Uzbekistan’s human rights commissioner Dmytro Lubinets said the oldest of the returned residents was 94, and the youngest was a child just over a year old.
Neither Moscow nor Kiev have announced the exact number of evacuees. Officials from both countries have previously said that many residents want to stay in the city and are unwilling to leave even if fighting resumes.
Summary FAQ
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It is a rare humanitarian ceasefire in more than four years of the Russo-Ukrainian war. It lasted six days and was described as the longest partial ceasefire since Russia’s full-scale invasion in 2022, allowing residents and supplies to enter and exit the city.
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Many residents said there has been a chronic shortage of food and medicine in the city. Some people were forced to cook grass to satisfy their hunger and even shot dogs for food. Others reported that the streets were littered with corpses and vehicles and that conditions were extremely brutal.
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After the ceasefire came into effect, Russian and Ukrainian authorities jointly distributed food, medicine and cleared landmines, and some residents were evacuated to areas controlled by Ukraine; However, the ceasefire will expire on November 1, and the future situation is still unclear.
