Fourth Plane Carrying Oleshky Evacuees Lands in Belarus, Arakhamia Says

A fourth and final plane carrying Ukrainian citizens evacuated from Oleshky has landed in Gomel, Belarus, Davyd Arakhamia said on October 31. The head of the Servant of the People parliamentary faction said the evacuees and the Ukrainian delegation accompanying them were expected to reach Ukrainian territory within a few hours. His announcement did not confirm that they had crossed into Ukraine. “The fourth and final plane has landed in Gomel,” Arakhamia wrote. In an October 30 statement, he had outlined a journey through Anapa, followed by flights to Belarus and a bus transfer home. The Ukrainian parliament’s press service also published his account of that route. Neither announcement provided a total number of passengers. The parliamentary statement described a mission to deliver humanitarian aid and evacuate civilians from Oleshky, a temporarily occupied city on the left bank of the Dnipro near Kherson. Arakhamia said on October 30 that the local ceasefire was continuing while that mission was underway. In an October 23 announcement, the White House said Russia and Ukraine had agreed to a temporary halt in military action in Oleshky to allow aid deliveries and preparations for civilian evacuation. It estimated that 1,700–2,000 people remained, mainly older residents, including about 50 children, while cautioning that no formal demographic count had taken place since 2022. It said residents needed medical care, medicine, food and clean water, and that those wishing to leave would receive coordinated assistance and transport.