Key facts
- Lubinets said another evacuation requires agreed humanitarian and security conditions before a safe mechanism is established.
- Lubinets said his office is gathering information on each person who wants to leave, focusing on the elderly, people with disabilities and families with children.
- The Kremlin has publicly ruled out further humanitarian operations in the foreseeable future, according to the report.
- Ukrainian officials said the Oleshky community includes 13 settlements, five of which have been completely destroyed.
- Ukrainian officials estimated about 2,000 people, including about 50 children, remained in Oleshky by October, before the evacuation.
- Lubinets said on November 2 that the number of people still in Oleshky could not be verified and evacuee numbers could not be disclosed.
Ukrainian authorities are exploring the possibility of organizing an additional safe evacuation for residents of Oleshky and other settlements in the surrounding area, Ukraine's human rights ombudsman Dmytro Lubinets said on November 10. The statement came after a humanitarian mission alongside a local ceasefire in Kherson Oblast concluded on November 1.
Lubinets said his office continues to receive calls and inquiries from residents of Oleshky and the Oleshky community. "People who have seen that the safe evacuation process has worked are now also expressing their wish to leave for territory controlled by the Government of Ukraine," he said. To conduct another evacuation, Lubinets said, the relevant humanitarian and security conditions must be agreed upon, and once a safe mechanism is established people seeking evacuation will receive the necessary information.
"We are continuing to gather and update information on each of these individuals (who want to leave)... We are paying particular attention to the elderly, people with reduced mobility, people with disabilities, the seriously ill, and families with children," Lubinets said.
Oleshky residents already evacuated told the Kyiv Independent at the border on October 31 that some people who remained in Oleshky regretted not having left. "Those who remained now regret they didn't go with us," said Alla Tyshenko, an evacuated Oleshky resident. Another evacuated resident, Olha Liutikova, told the Kyiv Independent that some people were too afraid to evacuate because they did not trust Russia to adhere to the ceasefire. The Kremlin has publicly ruled out further humanitarian operations in the foreseeable future, according to the report.