By Dan Peleschuk
KYIV, Oct 30 (Reuters) - Starving and exhausted residents of a Russian-held town in southern Ukraine were evacuated by bus 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 to distribute food and medicine.
Those wishing to leave - some for Russia, some for Ukraine - were taken initially to Russian-annexed Crimea in 25 buses and nine ambulances, Russian human rights commissioner Yana Lantratova said, before splitting into separate convoys.
Senior Ukrainian lawmaker David Arakhamia said those heading for Ukraine would be taken from there to Anapa in southern Russia before flying to Belarus and finally crossing back into Ukraine by bus - a route of more than 1,000 miles.
Although it was a striking example of cooperation between the warring sides, a spokesman for Russian President Vladimir Putin described it as "difficult to extrapolate" to the wider search for peace.
Attacks continued elsewhere, with Russian strikes overnight targeting seven regions of Ukraine, the capital Kyiv and the southeastern city of Dnipro, officials said. On Thursday, a Russian drone killed at least 15 people on a rail platform in Dnipro.
Russia said Ukraine had resumed strikes on its oil refineries despite a request from US President Donald Trump to stop such attacks, which Trump has blamed for raising the cost of diesel before midterm legislative elections next week. There was no comment from Ukraine.
SOME RESIDENTS STAY BEHIND
It was not clear how many people had chosen to stay behind in Oleshky, which has suffered extensive war damage and was badly flooded after the destruction of the Kakhovka dam upstream from the town in 2023.
Residents have given harrowing accounts of risking their lives travelling along mine-strewn roads - one known as the "road of death" - to get food and water. Some say they have survived on little more than a cup of rice or buckwheat a day.
"The problem is that a lot of people are staying," one woman told Ukraine's human rights ombudsman Dmytro Lubinets, who was on the ground to coordinate the operation with Lantratova.
"I’ve been told that it’s their own choice," Lubinets replied. "At the very least, we’ll do what we can to ensure that somehow humanitarian aid gets through."
In another video clip, he embraced a woman who gave her name as Anna, and asked if she was packed and ready to leave.
"Yes, we are on bus 20, my son is on bus 17. To Ukraine," she said.
BOTH SIDES KEEN TO PLACATE TRUMP
Both sides have praised the US first lady for brokering the deal, with the additional involvement of Pope Leo. Kyiv and Moscow have reasons to ensure its success to avoid antagonising the US president before the midterm elections, with US-mediated peace talks due to resume in November after a nine-month gap.
For Russia, which seized Oleshky in the first days of the war in 2022, the operation also provides a PR opportunity. Russian state TV has shown aid boxes destined for Oleshky, decorated with the Russian flag, being loaded by people wearing T-shirts reading "Putin's Team - The People's Front".
Russia's Lantratova said food, hygiene products, medical supplies and fuel were being delivered. Ukraine's Lubinets said everyone in need of help would get it.
Relations between the pair were cordial - something not seen between Russian and Ukrainian officials since the start of the war - as they appeared side by side to address reporters.
They later spoke together to residents, some of whom were in tears. One woman switched hesitantly between Russian and Ukrainian, a moment that seemed to symbolise the plight of fearful people caught up in a war.
MOST EXTENSIVE CEASEFIRE OF ITS KIND
The ceasefire came into force in Oleshky and the Kherson region on Tuesday. Lubinets said that in terms of the front line, it was the most durable and extensive of the war, in which the two sides have intensified long-range airstrikes this year while battlefield front lines remain largely static.
The aid convoy's arrival was preceded by demining operations in which Lantratova said a Russian sapper and one other person were killed.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said there was a "high degree of coordination" between Lantratova and Lubinets.
But when a state TV reporter asked if this showed it was possible for Russia and Ukraine to agree on other issues, he replied: "This is an isolated situation, which is difficult to extrapolate to the entire settlement process at this stage."
(Reporting by Dan Peleschuk in Kyiv, Jekaterina Golubkova in Tokyo and Moscow bureau; writing by Mark Trevelyan; Editing by Kevin Liffey)
