There were raw, unfiltered scenes at the Belarus-Ukraine border on Saturday as evacuees from the devastated Russian-occupied city of Oleshky crossed into the Chernihiv region, where families reunited with relatives they hadn't seen in years. Two sisters, Dasha and Anya Palii, sprinted across the tarmac screaming toward the bus carrying their father, Mykhailo - a reunion that captured three years of desperate worry that they might never see him again. Their mother, Zhanna, clasped Mykhailo's face and stroked his forehead over and over, as if verifying he was the same man she'd left behind. He promised her that they will finally get married.

The journey was, to put it mildly, not direct. Ukrainian military positions sit just 5km (3.1 miles) from Oleshky, but evacuees first had to travel through Russian-occupied territory to southern Russia, fly to Belarus, and then be driven across Ukraine's northern border. The convoy included as many ambulances as coaches - a detail that tells you everything about the condition of the passengers. Some elderly residents were so weak they were carried on stretchers. The oldest evacuee was 94; the youngest was one, according to Dmytro Lubinets, Ukraine's human rights ombudsman. Many hobbled on crutches or needed wheelchairs, the years caught between frontlines written on weary faces.

Conditions in Oleshky had become so desperate that not only was getting supplies in extremely difficult, but escape was highly dangerous - routes out had been mined and were subject to drone attack. Bridges across the nearby River Dnipro have been destroyed, and sources say the riverbank has been mined and is dangerous. One resident who fled three weeks earlier told the BBC he had walked through 24km (15 miles) of minefields to reach safety. Many resorted to cooking garden weeds to survive.

A humanitarian ceasefire took effect across the frontline Kherson region on Tuesday - the first few days of peace in the area in four years, following Russia's full-scale invasion in February 2022. Before the war, Oleshky was home to 24,000 people. The ceasefire allowed the road out to be cleared of mines and humanitarian aid to be delivered. Residents had a four-hour window to leave before a convoy of 25 buses, with space for 750 people, departed Friday afternoon - ambulances included for those with limited mobility. Ceasefire measures remain in place until the end of Sunday 1 November.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky thanked US First Lady Melania Trump for her efforts in brokering the local ceasefire that paved the way for the evacuation. In a post on X, Zelensky said "all of them will receive the assistance they need. It is important that government agencies and all the regional and local authorities involved work effectively and help our people adapt." He also praised Lubinets and his team for helping move evacuees to safety, and thanked those who had helped bring attention to the "true humanitarian catastrophe in Ukrainian territory temporarily occupied by Russia."

Lubinets and his Russian counterpart, Yana Lantratova, travelled to Oleshky together on Friday, setting off from Armiansk in the Russian-occupied Crimean peninsula. Lubinets is the first Ukrainian official since the start of the war to visit Russian-occupied parts of Ukraine. The ceasefire required close cooperation between the two, which Lubinets said he carried out in the interests of saving lives - though some in Ukraine have recoiled at the sight of him standing beside a representative of the occupying power that has killed so many of the city's residents and made life unbearable for the rest.

Several hundred people are understood to have decided to stay in the war-torn city, despite widespread devastation and the lack of gas, electricity and running water. Some of the older generation did not want to leave, one relative told the BBC. Lubinets said Friday morning that those who stay "will receive all the necessary humanitarian assistance." Russia said Thursday it had prepared "dozens of tonnes" of aid for residents who do not wish to leave, including food, medicine, hygiene products and fuel for generators.

Tetiana and Volodymyr, an older couple carrying their cat, told the BBC they no longer have a home after it was burned down in the first year of the war. They had been living in the abandoned house of a neighbour. They said they instantly took the decision to leave but feared their journey could be disrupted. Now they have to work out where to go next and how to rebuild their lives.

Despite the ceasefire in Oleshky, the war has continued. Zelensky said Russia had attacked Ukrainian energy infrastructure, hitting electricity substations, thermal power plants and gas infrastructure. Ukraine's military said it hit a major Russian producer of missile fuel in the Rostov region. Negotiators from Ukraine, Russia and the US are due to resume ceasefire talks in Abu Dhabi in early November after discussions were suspended earlier this year due to the Iran war. The US has approved the sale of 500 Patriot missiles to Ukraine.