Ukraine will create a Center for the Return of Civilians to bring home Ukrainian civilians held by Russia or living under occupation, Human Rights Commissioner Dmytro Lubinets said on 2 November. On the same day, the Kremlin said it had no plans, for now, for another humanitarian operation like the one in occupied Oleshky.

The Oleshky truce, the longest since 2022, got civilians out because Moscow agreed to it. Within a week, the Kremlin went from calling such a truce a possible precedent to saying it has nothing similar planned, for now. For Ukrainians still in Russian prisons or under occupation, the next negotiated exit has no date.

Oleshky exposed the gaps

In Lubinets’s view, the Oleshky mission showed that Ukraine’s efforts to return civilian hostages from Russian prisons and civilians from occupied territory are not coordinated enough. His office will run the center, modeled on the Child Rights Protection Center, which he called a similar pilot.

Families of people held by Russia or living under occupation will be able to apply to the center, and it will draw attention to Russia’s violations of civilians’ rights. Lubinets said his office is building it on its own, with partners willing to help, and not together with Russia. Still, he said he had agreed with Russia’s Human Rights Commissioner Yana Lantratova to make aid deliveries to Oleshky regular, and the two sides are now discussing how to send them at least once a month.

Kremlin: no similar plans for now

On 26 October, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said the Oleshky truce could become a precedent for humanitarian pauses elsewhere. On 2 November, he told a briefing Moscow had no similar plans or initiatives for now, saying each case is unique.

Lantratova claimed Russia had expected more people to leave, but many did not want to leave their homes and relatives. She cited individual cases, including a woman who would not leave her mother after a stroke.

How the mission unfolded

Oleshky lies on the Dnipro’s left bank, across from Ukrainian-held Kherson. In July, international monitors confirmed Russia’s blockade of the town. In September, an Odesa volunteer said residents were foraging for roadside grass. Russian troops also seized food Ukraine dropped by drone, the town’s Ukrainian administration head said.

On 23 October, the White House announced a local ceasefire brokered by US First Lady Melania Trump. It ran from 27 October to 1 November, and its zone expanded beyond the town. Both sides kept their commitments, Lubinets said on 1 November.

Ukrainian troops used the pause to evacuate 167 civilians from Ukrainian-held riverside villages, Ukraine’s General Staff reported. On 31 October, the two ombudsmen agreed to keep working toward regular humanitarian missions.

Ukraine’s and Russia’s human rights commissioners have agreed to keep working on regular humanitarian missions after the evacuation from occupied Oleshky, Ukrainian ombudsman Dmytro Lubinets said on 31 October. A day later, the ceasefire that made the evacuation possible ended.

Without a new truce, the people left behind are back where they were. In July, the Institute for the Study of War concluded that Russia was effectively blockading Oleshky, which lies across the Dnipro from Ukrainian-held Kherson. In May, journalist Zarina Zabrisky said the existing route out, through occupied Crimea, Russia, and Belarus, did not work: only three of 20 people who recently tried it got through.

Oleshky as a first step

Lubinets wrote that he and Russian ombudsman Yana Lantratova had agreed to continue work on regular missions. He said Oleshky should be the first step, since people living near the front line need constant support.

Lantratova claimed the same day that the sides had agreed to hold regular missions.

The truce had been coordinated by US First Lady Melania Trump. On 1 November, Lubinets said both sides had kept their commitments. He added that the two were working through the possibilities of continuing such steps.

Who stayed behind

On 30 October, Lubinets wrote that some buses were heading to Ukraine and others to Russia. About 700 to 1,000 people may remain in Oleshky, The Insider correspondent Tatiana Popova estimated on 31 October. Many feared a provocation or did not want to leave their homes.

Meanwhile, Ukrainian troops used the truce to evacuate 167 civilians, 22 of them children, from Ukrainian-held riverside settlements that came under daily Russian shelling, Ukraine’s General Staff reported on 1 November.

Bodies moved to Henichesk

On 1 November, Ukrainian journalist Oleh Baturin wrote that Henichesk residents had told him dozens of civilians’ bodies were brought there from Oleshky. Volunteer Kseniia Arkhipova confirmed it, he said. By her data, 47 bodies had been kept in the basements of Oleshky’s hospital since May.

How these people died remains unknown. In September, Tetiana Hasanenko, head of Oleshky’s Ukrainian military administration in exile, said more than 100 bodies lay in the basement of the hospital, which had had no electricity for four years.