Since October 27, a ceasefire has been in effect in Oleshky, a town on the Dnipro River in Ukraine's Kherson region that Russia has occupied since 2022. Roughly 2,000 civilians remain trapped there — cut off from medicine, electricity, water, and food since the Kakhovka dam destruction in 2023 flooded the area and Russian forces mined every access route. Mine-clearing operations began at approximately 8 a.m. on the ceasefire's first day. Inside the town, everything is under military control and strict operational secrecy. Myroslava Kharchenko, a lawyer with the Save Ukraine Foundation — which has extracted at least 300 civilians from Oleshky over the past six months — told DW that any careless disclosure could jeopardize the entire operation. Preparations are proceeding through closed local chat groups. Registration lists and application forms are circulating. Organizers are verifying identities, dates of birth, current addresses, and cross-referencing contact information for neighbors and relatives in the same buildings, because communications inside Oleshky are deeply unreliable. Health data is being collected: some evacuees are ill, immobile, or recovering from blast and mine injuries, and medical support at the evacuation point will be essential. The evacuation route itself is one of the operation's sharpest constraints. A river crossing via the Dnipro has been deemed extremely dangerous with no confirmed approval. The likely path runs through Russian-occupied Ukrainian territory and possibly through Russia before reaching Ukrainian-controlled areas. None of this has been confirmed publicly for security reasons. The Save Ukraine Foundation estimates approximately 500 people may eventually leave, but not all at once. A phased approach is deliberate: if the first group exits safely, their experience may persuade others still paralyzed by fear and suspicion — justified by previous failed attempts at humanitarian corridors and ongoing provocations. Trust is the scarcest resource in Oleshky. Beyond living evacuees, there is a hospital requiring evacuation and a morgue where bodies must be recovered, identified, and causes of death established. Whether the humanitarian corridor's mandate extends to the dead remains unclear. Street-level mine clearance inside the town will add significant time to the operation regardless of military pace. Kharchenko credited Melania Trump with drawing international attention to Oleshky, describing the situation as genocide by the Russian Federation. The operational timeline remains genuinely unknown — both Russian and Ukrainian official statements have been deliberately minimal, and Kharchenko characterized that caution as entirely justified.
