Ukraine news: Oleshky evacuees reach Kyiv-held territory

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has arrived in Istanbul for talks with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoganwith Black Sea shipping among the issues on the agenda.

“We’re working to strengthen the protection of our people, our bilateral partnership with Türkiye, and real diplomatic prospects,” Zelenskyy wrote on X, using the alternative spelling for Turkey.

The Ukrainian president also plans to meet Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew, the Istanbul-based Orthodox Christian leader.

The US embassy in Russia warned there was “a credible threat of a mass casualty event” at a historical site in southern Moscow.

“The US government is coordinating with appropriate Russian authorities on a response,” the US embassy in Moscow said in a post on X.

The alleged plot would target the Tsaritsyno Museum Reserve, a sprawling complex of palaces and gardens built under the orders of Empress Cathrine the Great in the late 18th century.

Russia’s federal law enforcement agency, the FSB, said it received the warning and was doing “appropriate work” in response to it, according to Russian news agencies.

Ukraine‘s military said it struck a factory producing solid rocket fuel in Russia’s Rostov region, setting a warehouse ablaze and damaging four production workshops.

The attack on the Kamensky plant in Kamensk-Shakhtinsky involved drones and Neptune missiles, according to the Ukrainian account.

The military said the plant supplies fuel for ammunition used by Russia’s Uragan, Smerch and Tornado-S multiple-launch rocket systems, as well as other missiles and air-launched weapons.

Ukraine also reported strikes on four Russian military supply depots in occupied parts of the Donetsk, Zaporizhzhia and Luhansk regions.

The claims have not been independently verified.

First evacuees from the Russian-occupied Oleshky have reached Ukrainian-controlled territory amid a localized ceasefire.

Oleshky, near the front line in the southern Kherson region, has been occupied by Russia since 2022. In recent weeks, the town has faced a severe humanitarian crisis.

Both sides have recently agreed to a localized ceasefire to extract the estimated 2,000 civilians still in Oleshky, down from its pre-invasion population of 24,000.

Moscow and Kyiv credited the US first lady, Melania Trump, with brokering the truce.

Residents were given a choice to go to Russia or travel via Belarus to the part of Ukraine controlled by Kyiv.

Ukraine’s human rights ombudsman Dmytro Lubinets said the initiative required “an enormous amount of work.”

He said evacuees included a one-year-old baby and a 94-year-old resident of Oleshky. The evacuees brought pets, including dogs, cats, a parrot and a raccoon, according to Lubinets.

He expressed hope that the Oleshky arrangement can be replicated elsewhere.

The truce started on Tuesday and is due to end on Sunday night.

Welcome to DW’s coverage of the latest developments in the Russian war on Ukraine.

You join us as Ukraine welcomes evacuees from Oleshky, a town in the Kherson region that has been occupied by Russia since 2022.

Meanwhile, Kyiv claimed it hit the Kamensky plant in the Rostov region deep inside Russia. The factory produces solid fuel for rockets and missiles.

Stay tuned for the latest news and analysis from the ongoing war.