By Dan Peleschuk
KYIV, Oct 30 (Reuters) - Starving residents of a Russian-held town in southern Ukraine began evacuating on Friday as part of a joint relief operation by the opposing sides, the first of its kind in four years and eight months of war.
Under a local ceasefire brokered by US first lady Melania Trump, an aid convoy arrived in the town of Oleshky and people were given the opportunity to leave.
Although it was a striking example of cooperation between the warring sides, the Kremlin described it as a special case that was "difficult to extrapolate" to the wider search for a peace settlement.
Attacks continued elsewhere, with Russian strikes overnight targeting seven regions of Ukraine as well as the capital Kyiv and the southeastern city of Dnipro, officials said.
Russia said it had shot down 1,043 Ukrainian drones over its regions overnight. On Thursday, a Russian drone killed at least 15 people on a rail platform in the Ukrainian city of Dnipro.
In Oleshky, Russian human rights commissioner Yana Lantratova said groups of people were boarding evacuation buses - some wishing to go to Russia and others to Ukraine.
ROAD INTO OLESHKY CLEARED OF LANDMINES
It was not clear how many people were in each group, and how many residents, if any, had decided to stay.
Addressing Ukraine's parliament on Friday, Prime Minister Sergiy Koretskyi said residents headed for Ukraine would travel through Russia to Belarus before entering the Kyiv and Chernihiv regions.
Lantratova, appearing side by side with her Ukrainian counterpart Dmytro Lubinets, said food, hygiene products, medical supplies and fuel were being delivered to the town.
Lubinets said everyone in need of help would get it.
"We have reached an agreement to assist citizens who wish to travel to Ukraine - they will be provided with the opportunity to do so. Likewise, assistance will be available to those who wish to travel to the Russian Federation," he said.
In footage posted by Lubinets, teary residents greeted the Ukrainian delegation.
Oleshky, on the Dnipro River opposite the city of Kherson, was seized by Russian troops during the first days of their full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
It has suffered extensive damage and was badly flooded after the destruction of the huge upriver Kakhovka dam in 2023.
Residents have given harrowing accounts of risking their lives travelling along mine-strewn roads - one known as the "road of death" - to get food and water. Some say they have survived on a cup of rice or buckwheat a day, sometimes with a tomato, cucumber or wild plants added.
The ceasefire came into force in Oleshky and the Kherson region on Tuesday.
"This is the first time since 2022 that a ceasefire has been established across such an extensive stretch of the front line and has been maintained for such a significant duration," Lubinets said.
The arrival of the aid convoy was preceded by demining operations in which Lantratova said a Russian sapper and one other person were killed.
She said 25 buses were on hand to evacuate people, with special provision for those who were bedridden, and 50 medical personnel were present. There was even a bus with pet cages for those who wished to take their animals.
TWO SIDES STILL FAR APART ON TERMS FOR PEACE
The joint relief operation showed the two sides are capable of working together despite the ferocity of the war, in which both have intensified long-range air strikes this year while battlefield front lines remain largely static.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said there was a "high degree of coordination" between Lantratova and Lubinets.
However, asked later by a state TV reporter if this showed it was possible for Russia and Ukraine to agree on other issues, he replied: "This is an isolated situation, which is difficult to extrapolate to the entire settlement process at this stage."
Pope Leo urged Russian President Vladimir Putin in a phone call on October 16 to arrange a ceasefire in order to get food and supplies into Oleshky, and followed up three days later in a conversation with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy.
But all parties have credited Melania Trump with putting the deal in place, and Moscow and Kyiv have repeatedly praised her involvement.
Successful implementation is important to both sides in order not to antagonise President Donald Trump, who this month struck a deal with Putin on Russian diesel supplies and stepped up criticism of Zelenskiy.
US-mediated peace talks are due to resume next month in Abu Dhabi for the first time since February.
Russia still hopes that Trump can pressure Kyiv into accepting a deal that meets many of Moscow's conditions, such as full Russian control of Ukraine's Donbas region and a bar on Ukraine joining NATO.
Kyiv wants to ensure that US intelligence sharing continues, along with full access to Elon Musk's recently disrupted battlefield communications system, Starshield, and that European-bought US military hardware, including Patriot interceptor missiles, continues to flow.
