Starving residents of a Russian-held town in southern Ukraine began evacuating on Friday as part of a joint relief operation by the opposing sides, the first of its kind in four years and eight months of war.
Under a local ceasefire brokered by US first lady Melania Trump, an aid convoy arrived in the town of Oleshky and people were given the opportunity to leave if they wished.
It was the most striking example yet of co-operation between the two warring sides.
But attacks continued elsewhere, with Russian strikes overnight targeting seven regions as well as the capital Kyiv and the southeastern city of Dnipro, officials said.
Russia said it had shot down 1,043 Ukrainian drones over Russian regions overnight. On Thursday, a Russian drone strike killed at least 15 people on a crowded rail platform in the Ukrainian city of Dnipro.
In Oleshky, Russian human rights commissioner Yana Lantratova said groups of people were boarding evacuation buses – some wishing to go to Russia and others to Ukraine. A senior Ukrainian lawmaker also said evacuations had begun.
People board a bus during a local ceasefire linked to efforts to evacuate residents of Oleshky in Ukraine. Photograph: Evgeniy Maloletka/AP
It was not clear how many people were in each group, and how many residents, if any, had decided to stay.
Addressing Ukraine’s parliament on Friday, prime minister Sergiy Koretskyi said residents going to Ukraine would travel through Russia to Belarus before entering the Kyiv and Chernihiv regions, news agency Interfax Ukraine reported.
Lantratova, appearing side by side with her Ukrainian counterpart Dmytro Lubinets, said food, hygiene products, medical supplies and fuel were being delivered to the town.
Lubinets said everyone in need of assistance would get it.
“We have reached an agreement to assist citizens who wish to travel to Ukraine – they will be provided with the opportunity to do so. Likewise, assistance will be available to those who wish to travel to the Russian Federation,” he said.
In footage posted by Lubinets, teary-eyed residents warmly greeted the Ukrainian delegation.
Oleshky, on the Dnipro River opposite the city of Kherson, was seized by Russian troops during the first days of their full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
It has suffered extensive damage and was badly flooded after the destruction of the huge upriver Kakhovka dam in 2023.
Residents have given harrowing accounts of risking their lives travelling along mine-strewn roads – one known as the “road of death” – just to get food and water. Some say they have survived on a cup of rice or buckwheat a day, sometimes with a tomato, cucumber or wild plants added.
A local ceasefire came into force in Oleshky and the Kherson region early on Tuesday.
“This is the first time since 2022 that a ceasefire has been established across such an extensive stretch of the front line and has been maintained for such a significant duration,” Lubinets said.
The arrival of the aid convoy was preceded by demining operations in which Lantratova said a soldier and one other person were killed.
She said 25 buses were on hand to evacuate people, with special provision for those who were bedridden, and 50 medical personnel were present. There was also a bus with pet cages for those who wished to take their animals with them.
The joint relief operation offers hope that the two sides are capable of working together, despite the ferocity of the war, in which Russia and Ukraine have intensified long-range air strikes while battlefield front lines remain largely static.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said there was a “high degree of co-ordination” between Lantratova and Lubinets.
US-mediated peace talks are due to resume next month in Abu Dhabi for the first time since February, as US president Donald Trump seeks to end a conflict he once said he could solve in a day.
Russia still hopes that Trump can pressure Kyiv into accepting a deal that meets many of Moscow’s conditions, such as full Russian control of Ukraine’s Donbas region and a bar on Ukraine joining Nato.
Kyiv wants to ensure that US intelligence sharing continues, along with full access to Elon Musk’s recently disrupted battlefield communications system, Starshield, and that European-bought US military hardware, including Patriot interceptor missiles, continues to flow.
Meanwhile, Officials at the Pentagon have in recent weeks asked several Nato countries to tone down their rhetoric regarding the threat posed by Russia, arguing that some statements by European leaders and officials have undermined continental security, four people familiar with the matter said.
Among the nations that have received messages urging them to keep public statements in check are Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia, said the people, who spoke on condition of anonymity.
It was not clear if the messages, which were delivered in bilateral meetings, were conveyed to other European governments.
Asked for comment, a Pentagon official said: “Private conversations among allies are just that, so we will not comment on these allegations.”
Among the comments that have drawn US officials’ attention are suggestions by European leaders that Russia is cornered and resorting to increasingly desperate measures as its invasion of Ukraine slows to a crawl, one of the people said.
Pentagon policy chief Elbridge Colby, a key figure in a continuing review of US troop levels in Europe, was one of the US officials delivering the message, the people said.
None of the people, who include three European officials and a US official, suggested the advice was communicated in a confrontational manner.
The US messages reflect a debate within Nato regarding how to publicly address the threat of an increasingly assertive Russia.
Some western officials have argued that emphasising the threat posed by Moscow could play into the hands of the Kremlin, which they say seeks to sow fear and undermine support for Ukraine.
Others argue European governments must be transparent to show their electorates that sacrifice and resources are needed to keep Moscow at bay. That is especially true as Russia appears to accelerate a covert campaign of sabotage throughout the Continent.
Russia has denied that it is pursuing such a campaign. – Reuters
Destroyed cars are seen on a road from the Russian-occupied city of Oleshky in Ukraine. Photograph: Ukrainian 34th Separate Marine Brigade ‘Borysfen’ via AP