The BBC reports:
Hundreds evacuated from Russian-occupied Oleshky during rare Ukraine ceasefire
In a report that is reasonably balanced for the most part.
or an alternative like this one from The Atlantic:
https://www.theatlantic.com/international/2026/10/oleshky-ceasefire-ukraine-press/689179/
Oleshky is a town (hardly a city with only c.24,000 per-war inhabitants) now with a few thousand people left that are trapped in a frontline location occupied by Russian forces and under attack by the Ukrainian state.
Note that the use of the term 'city' is an inflationary media wheeze to make readers think that millions of people are affected rather than a town that was previously a little more than half the size of the city of Salisbury (aka Skripalville) in the UK (c. 42,000 inhabitants).
When it suits the media, when Russians occupy towns they are called cities to inflate the impact or when Russians occupy towns they are called villages to minimise the gain.
A standard media trick.
Clearly Russian forces occupied the town and the Ukrainian state wants them out - so the civilians are caught in-between.
A humanitarian operation, supposedly brokered by FOTUS Melania Trump, is underway to allow civilians to get out if they can/wish to.
Strangely, no such humanitarian operation was brokered by FOTUS for Palestinians in Gaza.
Of these 'hundreds evacuated', some have gone to 'western' Ukraine and some to Russia (some western MSM claims these people have been 'coerced' into going to Russia). We don't have exact numbers of who went where.
Western media shows pictures of happy Ukrainians being 'repatriated' to 'western' Ukraine with stories of the horrors of Russian occupation.
Russian media shows pictures of happy Ukrainians being 'evacuated' to Russia with their stories of of the horrors of being under Ukrainian siege.
Western reporting seems to assume that the town is only subject to Russian military attack, which ignores the fact that the Ukrainian state must be attacking the Russian forces in the town to try to kick them out so the remaining civilians are under attack from both sides.
According to this view, all drones flying around are Russian with no Ukrainian drones in action at all. Hardly likely.
The rhetoric around the situation in Oleshky has become so polarised that some basic next-level thinking is needed to gain some perspective.
Broadly speaking, depending on whether you believe the western or Russian MSM, the rhetoric says:
- Ukrainians in Oleshky are suffering from the depredations of evil Russian occupiers (western position)
- Ukrainians in Oleshky are suffering from the siege conditions imposed on the occupiers by the Ukrainian state (Russian position)
These polarised positions are both designed to present a simplified black-and-white, good vs evil narrative, where the 'villain' is clear.
But the reality is that a place like Oleshky, like many in 'eastern' Ukraine, is most likely populated by three types of people: pro-Ukraine, pro-Russia or neither one nor the other.
Pro-Ukraine people are likely to:
- Support the Maidan coup
- Support the Zelensky regime and its corruption
- Support the celebration of Nazis by the Ukrainian state
- Want to cut all ties with Russia
- Want to speak Ukrainian and not Russian
- Have relatives in 'western' Ukraine
Pro-Russia people are likely to:
- Not support the Maidan coup
- Support the Putin regime and its corruption
- Support the 'de-nazification' of Ukraine
- Want to preserve ties with Russia
- Want to speak Russian and not Ukrainian
- Have relatives in Russia
People in the middle, who do not especially support either 'extreme' and are probably in the majority, just want to live their lives in peace. Most of them (c. 22,000) have presumably already left.
Unfortunately, all the people remaining are now living in a 'frontline' location under 'siege' conditions and dealing with landmines, drones, occupying forces and other military incursions, much like the Palestinians in Gaza who never got this kind of humanitarian operation.