Evacuated residents of Olshki returned to Ukraine -. CNN. Dmitry did not see his wife Larissa for 1711 days. Waiting on the Ukrainian-Belarusian border, he looked nervously at the horizon, looking for the bus that was carrying Larisa and others who had fled Oleshki. When the pair finally reunited on Saturday afternoon, both draped in Ukrainian flags, Dmitri didn't hold back. He kissed her again and again and hugged her with such determination that it seemed as if he would never let her go again. Over the course of several years, Larissa lost a third of her weight. Her slender shoulders seem to sink into Dmitri's arms. But her deep blue eyes sparkled with joy. Hundreds of people, along with dozens of pets, returned to Ukraine on Saturday afternoon after being evacuated from the frontline city as part of a ceasefire initiated by Pope Leo XIV and brokered by first lady Melania Trump. Dmitri is a soldier in the Ukrainian army, which made Larisa vulnerable. The couple managed to get their daughter out, but Larissa feared that if she tried to leave, she would be detained at a Russian military checkpoint during vetting, a humiliating and often brutal interrogation that Ukrainians under Russian occupation were subjected to before being allowed to leave the territory still under Ukrainian control. So she stayed, hoping for a miracle. Instead, her life became a nightmare. In 2023, the city suffered severe flooding after the collapse of the nearby Novaya Kakhovka Dam. The following years of intense fighting saw further destruction in the region, and the humanitarian situation has deteriorated sharply in recent months. In September, the city ran out of food supplies and had no access to electricity, gas, medicine and other basic necessities. People survived on grass and weeds. The director of the regional hospital in Chernihiv, Andriy Zhidenko, along with his staff, waited at the border to provide medical assistance to the evacuees.

Evacuated residents of Olshki returned to Ukraine -. CNN. Dmitry did not see his wife Larissa for 1711 days. Waiting on the Ukrainian-Belarusian border, he looked nervously at the horizon, looking for the bus that was carrying Larisa and others who had fled Oleshki. When the pair finally reunited on Saturday afternoon, both draped in Ukrainian flags, Dmitri didn't hold back. He kissed her again and again and hugged her with such determination that it seemed as if he would never let her go again. Over the course of several years, Larissa lost a third of her weight. Her slender shoulders seem to sink into Dmitri's arms. But her deep blue eyes sparkled with joy. Hundreds of people, along with dozens of pets, returned to Ukraine on Saturday afternoon after being evacuated from the frontline city as part of a ceasefire initiated by Pope Leo XIV and brokered by first lady Melania Trump. Dmitri is a soldier in the Ukrainian army, which made Larisa vulnerable. The couple managed to get their daughter out, but Larissa feared that if she tried to leave, she would be detained at a Russian military checkpoint during vetting, a humiliating and often brutal interrogation that Ukrainians under Russian occupation were subjected to before being allowed to leave the territory still under Ukrainian control. So she stayed, hoping for a miracle. Instead, her life became a nightmare. In 2023, the city suffered severe flooding after the collapse of the nearby Novaya Kakhovka Dam. The following years of intense fighting saw further destruction in the region, and the humanitarian situation has deteriorated sharply in recent months. In September, the city ran out of food supplies and had no access to electricity, gas, medicine and other basic necessities. People survived on grass and weeds. The director of the regional hospital in Chernihiv, Andriy Zhidenko, along with his staff, waited at the border to provide medical assistance to the evacuees.