Ukrainian church leaders have thanked people who helped arrange mass evacuations from the Russian-occupied city of Oleshky last week, and have urged for similar efforts across the country.
Around 800 people were transported out of the heavily destroyed city in Ukraine’s south-western region of Kherson, nearly 1,000 miles away from the capital, Kyiv.
Oleshky has been occupied by Russia since 2022, and a temporary six-day ceasefire to get Ukrainians out of the war-torn city in dozens of buses and ambulances was said to have been organised by Pope Leo and the United States First Lady Melania Trump.
The All-Ukrainian Council of Churches and Religious Organisations hoped that other communities that they said urgently needed assistance would receive help.
“This mission was made possible through the implementation of agreements and adherence to a ceasefire,” the Council statement read.
We also recall that, until the city is liberated, the Russian side bears responsibility for lives and safety under divine and human law”.
The Russian Orthodox Church, for its part, said that officials were part of a working group, with Metropolitan Kirill of Stavropol and Nevinnomyssk providing ‘spiritual support’ for Russian soldiers and handing out icons of Patriarch Kirill to residents.
Russian attacks accelerated around the formerly peaceful city after the six-day ceasefire ended last weekend.
Energy sites were targeted while at least 31 people were killed in a strike on a school aid centre at Komyshuvakha, near Zaporizhzhia, on Monday.
Moscow said that on Thursday they struck a logistics hub and a cargo ship while Ukraine ignited fires in an industrial area of Ryazan, 125 miles southeast of the Kremlin in Moscow.
US-mediated peace talks are set to take place in Abu Dhabi on Tuesday 10 November.
Ukrainian and Russian officials were side-by-side at a White House event on Thursday 5 November to mark the success of the Oleshky operation.
Ukraine want more operations like in Oleshky, but the Kremlin has publicly ruled out other efforts of the kind.
President Donald Trump has revealed that he met with senior Russian officials in Washington D.C. on Thursday 5 November, pledging a peace deal that may involve ‘all of Europe’.
Trump said: “There’s going to be an agreement. It’s going to be a big agreement, and it’s going to involve more than Ukraine.
“It’s going to be a big, beautiful agreement - and everybody is going to be thrilled.”
US envoy Jared Kushner added on X: “Creating the right structure will be critical to ending this war and transitioning from conflict toward conditions that make possible a durable peace."