First joint Ukraine-Russia evacuation brings Oleshky residents to Belarus

Three planes carrying residents evacuated from the Russian-controlled Ukrainian town of Oleshky landed Saturday at Gomel airport in Belarus, marking the first joint relief operation by opposing sides in four years and eight months of war. The evacuees traveled by bus via Crimea to Anapa, Russia, before flying to Belarus. The evacuees, described as starving and exhausted, will proceed to Ukraine via a border crossing, according to Belta state news agency. The operation involved an estimated 2,000 remaining residents who were offered choices of traveling to Ukrainian or Russian territory, with US first lady Melania Trump helping broker the localized truce. Separately, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky welcomed the US approval of 500 Patriot PAC-3 missiles to Kyiv while warning deliveries could take years. Russian drone strikes also knocked out electricity to about 280,000 Ukrainian families in the Kyiv and Dnipropetrovsk regions.