Starved and exhausted Ukrainians said they “escaped from hell” as they arrived home from Russia-occupied territory on Saturday.

Hundreds of civilians have been evacuated from the town of Oleshky, crossing back into Ukrainian-held territory under a rare localised ceasefire aimed at preventing mass starvation on the southern frontline.

One evacuee, an elderly man in a wheelchair, said he had lost 20 kg over the past year, becoming so weak that he required hospital treatment. Another, Svitlana Yermakova, said that they had to eat grass to survive food shortages.

“We chopped grass and squash … just to hold on,” she said, adding that she risked riding by bicycle through minefields to a nearby village to get food for herself and her dog, Manila.

The oldest returning resident was 94, while the youngest was a baby just over one.

One elderly woman said that they had escaped from hell as she exited a bus bring Ukrainians back. She was tearfully greeted by another woman wrapped in Ukraine’s national blue and yellow flag, one of many emotional scenes caught on camera.

The arrivals on Saturday follow a complex, multi-leg rescue mission across three countries, brokered with the involvement of US First Lady Melania Trump and appeals from Pope Leo XIV, marking the most significant humanitarian pause between Kyiv and Moscow since Russia launched its full-scale invasion four and a half years ago.

They first travelled by bus via Crimea to the Russian town of Anapa, before flying to Belarus from where they continued to Ukraine.

A video shared by Ukraine’s ombudsman showed dozens of Oleshky residents slowly disembarking from a plane at a Belarusian airfield, many of them elderly.

Some required help to walk, and a few were carried on stretchers or in wheelchairs. They carried minimal luggage – only a bag or two. Dogs were unloaded from the plane in cages.

At a border reception point in northern Ukraine, aid workers from the Red Cross, Doctors Without Borders, and World Central Kitchen set up heated tents, food stations, and veterinary posts for pets brought out by evacuees.

Dozens of relatives gathered by the road, waiting to see whether family members they had not seen in years were among the passengers.

Among those scanning arriving buses was 19-year-old Liza Paliy, who had not seen her father in more than two and a half years. She fled the occupied Kherson region with her mother and sister early in the war while he stayed behind to guard their home.

“We thought at that time that it would be a month, two maximum, and we would return, but unfortunately, two years have already passed,” Ms Paliy said.

Nearby, Daria Pavlyn waited for news of her father, Mykhailo, with whom she lost contact roughly a month ago.

Her family had initially planned to escape together after an artillery strike killed two neighbours, but her father stayed behind when plans to look after their property and animals collapsed.

“We realised that, well, there was no other way, and he walked us to the road and that was it — that was the last time,” Ms Pavlyn said. Since then, she added, he had feared making the journey out alone without Russian occupation documents.

Whether either woman’s father was on board remained unconfirmed as convoys arrived under tight operational security. Ukrainian authorities placed strict reporting restrictions on the mission, barring disclosure of the precise number of evacuees or the specific border crossing location.

Officials in Kyiv said the blackout was necessary to protect residents who chose to remain in Oleshky, as well as to safeguard the security of potential future humanitarian corridors.

The US First Lady Melania Trump previously stated on social media that the operation was organised to safely evacuate more than 750 people. It is not yet clear how many have returned.

The evacuation provides an emergency escape valve for a frontline community pushed to the brink of catastrophe.

Oleshky, situated on the Russian-occupied east bank of the Dnipro River directly opposite Ukrainian-held Kherson, has been subjected to relentless shelling and intense drone surveillance.

Commercial supply lines to the town collapsed entirely in May.

Officials estimate that only 1,700 to 2,000 residents remained in Oleshky from a pre-war population of roughly 24,000, the majority of them elderly or bedridden.

Under the terms of the agreement, the localised truce took effect at 3:00am on Tuesday and was scheduled to run through Sunday evening.

Residents who remained were offered the choice of relocating to Russia, returning to Ukrainian-held territory, or staying in Oleshky with replenished food and medical consignments.

Because active combat positions across the heavily fortified Dnipro River made a direct crossing impossible, civilians heading to Ukraine were forced onto a circuitous journey spanning thousands of kilometres.

Ukraine’s human rights commissioner, Dmytro Lubinets, accompanied the group throughout the transit. “We will be home soon!” Mr Lubinets said in a video recorded alongside passengers on the Tarmac in Homel.

Some residents decided to go to Russia, while others elected to remain in Oleshky, despite the lack of gas, electricity and running water.

Russian Human Rights Commissioner Yana Lantratova said that living conditions in the town remain difficult, and that she would continue to work with her Ukrainian counterpart Lubinets to help those who stayed.

“The mission has come to an end,” she said on Telegram. “We have agreed to carry out regular humanitarian missions, which is a very important step.”

The mission took place against a backdrop of ongoing hostilities across Ukraine. President Volodymyr Zelensky said Russian drone attacks overnight targeted energy and rail infrastructure, knocking out power to 280,000 households across the Kyiv and Dnipro regions.

Meanwhile, Washington approved a $2.1bn (£1.6bn) sale of 500 Patriot PAC-3 interceptors to Ukraine, financed through contributions from Germany, Canada, and Norway.