Evacuation begins Friday in besieged Ukrainian city of Oleshky as residents fear Russian filtration

On Friday, hundreds are to be brought out of the besieged Ukrainian city of Oleshky. They hope to leave but fear torture in Russia.

Russian soldiers prepare a road in the Kherson region on October 27 for the planned evacuation from Oleshky. Photo: Alexei Konovalov/ZUMA Press/imago

By Timur Vorkul and Mathias Brüggmann

Since 3:00 a.m. on Tuesday, the city of Oleshky — once home to 24,000 people, on the east bank of the Dnipro River — has had what residents have been missing for months: calm. No artillery thunder, no drone hunts, no missile strikes. In the city, encircled by Russian troops and located opposite the major city of Kherson on the other bank of the Dnipro, the ceasefire negotiated with Russia and Ukraine by US First Lady Melania Trump and Pope Leo has since held.

And in the midst of the truce, already being called the "Melania Peace," evacuations are set to begin on Friday morning. "My mother registered online with volunteers for departure," Anna, who fled from Oleshky, told the taz. The evacuation route is initially to lead to the Russian Black Sea city of Anapa, from where the people from Oleshky are to be flown to Gomel in Belarus on military aircraft.

For days, the access roads into the Russian-occupied southern Ukrainian front-line city of Oleshky have been cleared of mines for the humanitarian operation.

Grave Concerns for Her Mother

Anna nevertheless has grave concerns for her mother and the other hundreds of people from the city — which has been barely supplied for months — who have registered for the evacuations: "I am very worried because my family was subjected to a filtration when fleeing the occupied city of Oleshky," Anna said.

"My husband was put under heavy pressure. So I don't assume the departure will be easy. Most likely, they will be subjected to a filtration in Anapa before boarding the plane," fears the mother of a five-year-old daughter.

Russia has repeatedly subjected Ukrainians from encircled cities such as Mariupol, and people in areas occupied by the Russian army, to so-called filtrations: some were forced to undress completely to be examined for allegedly pro-Ukrainian tattoos. They were interrogated for hours and, according to reports from human rights organizations, sometimes tortured to extract whether they had fought for Ukraine.

Deaths During "Filtration"

According to reports, numerous people have died in the process. For the safety of those willing to evacuate from Ukraine, Ukrainian Human Rights Commissioner Dmytro Lubinets is to accompany the operation.

Anna's 55-year-old mother has taken some precautions to get through a "filtration": "We don't talk about much because the Russian army can check the phone at any time," the daughter reported. However, she is in regular contact with her mother — several times a month — when the phone can be charged and there is a connection.

"I am quite positive about the evacuation. I had hoped people should have left before the blowing up of the Kakhovka Dam," said Anna, 30.

The dam was blown up on June 6, 2023, causing major flooding along the lower Dnipro. Oleshky was captured by Russian troops in February 2022, immediately after the full-scale Russian invasion. When the Russian army had to withdraw from the opposite regional capital of Kherson in November following large-scale Ukrainian counteroffensives, Oleshky became a front-line city.

According to Ukrainian figures, about 1,700 of the former 24,000 residents are still living there. Lately, they had to manage for months without running water, without electricity and without food, as the access routes were mined. Ukraine had repeatedly tried to supply the people with food via drones.

Help from Melania Trump

Melania Trump and Pope Leo responded to this catastrophic situation and, through pressure on Moscow and Kyiv, brought about this humanitarian aid. The wife of the US president — who has recently again faced rape allegations — has also campaigned for years for the release of Ukrainian children deported to Russia.

Meanwhile, numerous uninvolved civilians were again killed in Russian attacks on Ukrainian cities. In a drone attack on the main railway station of the major city of Dnipro, 14 people were killed and others partially seriously injured. In an attack on the center of the northern Ukrainian city of Chernihiv, two 15-year-olds lost their lives.

Hardly anyone believes that things will remain calm in Oleshky after the evacuation: "I have heard from other people in Oleshky that Russia is using the ceasefire to bring military equipment here for a massive attack on Kherson," Anna reported.

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