Ukrainian evacuees leave Oleshky as Melania Trump-brokered ceasefire holds

Four planes carrying Ukrainian evacuees from the Russian-controlled town of Oleshky landed in Belarus on Saturday, following a US-backed local ceasefire mediated by US First Lady Melania Trump with the pope's involvement. Hundreds of starving residents left the town during the first humanitarian pause of its kind in the nearly five-year war. The final plane landed in Gomel, Belarus, according to Ukrainian negotiator David Arakhamia, with evacuees and a Ukrainian delegation expected to reach Ukrainian territory within hours. Residents traveled a complicated route via Crimea and the Russian town of Anapa before flying to Belarus and continuing to Ukraine by bus. The ceasefire, holding since Tuesday without violations, allowed de-mining and delivery of food and medicine to Oleshky, where supplies were disrupted by fighting. Around 1,700 people remained in the town, down from a pre-war population of about 24,000, many of them elderly or ill.