Civilians began leaving the besieged, Russian-held city of Oleshky in southern Ukraine on Friday in a joint relief operation, according to the Guardian. The convoy, which included 25 buses and ambulances, brought food and medicine to the city and offered evacuations to Russia or Ukraine.
The city lies on the Russian-occupied side of the Dnipro River, opposite Kherson. The report says months of food and medical shortages have led to warnings of starvation among the few thousand people still there, including about 50 children.
A localised ceasefire in Ukraine's southern Kherson region allowed roads out of Oleshky to be de-mined. The report says the evacuation is the first of its kind in four years and eight months of war.
Evacuees will travel through Russia and Belarus before reaching Ukraine. The report says they will travel to the southern Russian city of Anapa, fly to Belarus, then take a bus into Ukraine's Chernihiv region, even though Ukrainian territory is about 3 miles (5 km) from Oleshky.
Davyd Arakhamia, a lawmaker with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy's Servant of the People party, who was part of the delegation to Oleshky, confirmed that some people were travelling to Anapa. "From there, they will fly by plane to Belarus, and then travel by bus to their homes," he said.
Kyrylo Budanov, head of Ukraine's presidential office, wrote online that the humanitarian operation was under way in Oleshky. The report says Budanov was not part of the delegation.
Earlier reports suggested more than 500 people wanted to move to Ukrainian territory, but the report says it was unclear how many travelled in the convoy. Several hundred people, mainly older residents, have chosen to stay.
Ksenia Arkhipova, a volunteer who previously lived in Oleshky, told the Associated Press that large numbers of Russian military personnel were in the city. She said they were checking empty houses, in some cases moving into them, and pressuring residents to evacuate to Russia rather than Ukraine.
The report says US First Lady Melania Trump claimed to have helped broker the ceasefire. On Friday, the Kremlin described the arrangement as a special case that was "difficult to extrapolate" to the wider search for a peace settlement.
Ukraine's human rights ombudsman, Dmytro Lubinets, who was on the ground to coordinate with his Russian counterpart, Yana Lantratova, said the ceasefire was the first since 2022 to cover such an extensive stretch of the frontline for such a significant duration.