Planes Carrying Residents of Oleshky Land at Homiel Airport

Reform.news Editorial Team · 31 October 2026, 11:18

https://reform.news/en/planes-carrying-residents-of-oleshky-land-at-homiel-airport/

Three planes carrying residents of Oleshky in Ukraine’s Kherson region, which is occupied by Russia, landed at Homiel Airport, BelTA reported.

Residents of Oleshky first travelled by bus to Anapa and then flew to Belarus for several hours. A tent camp was set up for them at Homiel Airport. The evacuees will wait there before being sent to the Novaya Huta border crossing, through which they will travel to Ukraine.

Medical teams, including an intensive care ambulance, as well as a supply of medicines and medical equipment, were prepared to assist those arriving. BelTA repeatedly emphasised Belarus’s role in the mission, noting that representatives of Ukraine and Russia were met at Homiel Airport by the chair of the House of Representatives’ Standing Commission on Labour and Social Affairs, Iryna Kastsevich, and the chair of the Belarusian Women’s Union, Volha Shpileuskaya.

“The Belarusian side is fulfilling its role in a humanitarian operation for civilians in the frontline city of Oleshky in the Kherson region. Minsk remains a participant in the international process, ensuring the implementation of agreements between Moscow and Kyiv during the humanitarian mission,” the state news agency said.

“The Belarusian side created all the necessary conditions for the first face-to-face contacts between representatives of Moscow and Kyiv, providing the necessary comprehensive assistance and acting as a guarantor of security. (…) The humanitarian operation is being carried out, among other things, thanks to the trust-based relations established between Belarus and Ukraine. This made it possible to ensure the security of the activities and once again save people’s lives,” BelTA added.

Ukraine’s parliamentary commissioner for human rights, Dmytro Lubinets, said that among the residents of Oleshky were those who decided to remain in the city, travel to Ukraine or go to Russia. According to him, people received assistance regardless of their choice.

“We stopped several times and provided medical assistance. A large number of ambulance personnel and medical workers were working on site. We also had a separate group of people with disabilities, who were transported in ambulances directly from Oleshky from the very beginning until they reached the airport,” he said.

“We are not giving figures because they are actually extremely difficult to verify, but I will put it this way: today in Oleshky, we divided people into three categories, so to speak. The first were those who wanted to remain in Oleshky, and a large amount of humanitarian aid was delivered specifically to them, which they have already received. The second category consisted of those who expressed a desire to travel to Ukraine. And the third category consisted of those who wished to travel to the territory of the Russian Federation. Everyone received technical assistance, regardless of their choice,” Lubinets added.

The Ukrainian ombudsman also said that it had been proposed to use the experience of this humanitarian operation to help residents of other localities. According to him, discussions with his Russian counterpart, Yana Lantratova, also covered prisoner-of-war exchanges, the return of civilians and family reunifications.

“Today, together with Yana Valeryevna Lantratova, in an appeal to Melania Trump, we put forward an initiative and proposed that the experience we have gained during the preparation of this humanitarian mission could, in our view, also be used in relation to other localities. We are now waiting for a response.

But as Yana Valeryevna and I spent virtually the entire day today holding our talks and discussing technical issues, of which there are actually very many, we addressed not only the implementation of this humanitarian mission, but also, as always, solutions to issues concerning prisoner-of-war exchanges, the return of civilians and family reunifications — a whole range of different issues. We have already developed new initiatives and, among other things, we want them to be supported by the United States and Melania Trump,” he said.

A Belarusian state television correspondent also asked how he assessed the role of Belarusian journalists in covering the mission and Belarus’s participation overall.

“In effect, our logistical route passed through Belarus and ended by travelling through Belarus to Ukraine. We have indeed shown that the openness and transparency of this process are among its key components. Today, journalists from Ukraine, the Russian Federation and the United States worked alongside us. By the way, you may even see some of them. They are returning directly to Kyiv with us and will film the entire process. Therefore, our position is that the more journalists there are from a greater number of countries, the more transparently all of this takes place. And perhaps in the future this will make it easier to build on this experience. The role of each country will be assessed by the citizens of Ukraine whom we are returning today,” Lubinets said.