Is the evacuation of Oleshky just 'propaganda' for Putin in the Ukraine war? | Global News Podcast

This is the global news podcast from the. BBC World Service. I'm Celia Hatton and. today in Ukraine, what will happen to. the people of Alleski? Hundreds of. Ukrainians are being evacuated from this. Russian occupied city which [music] has. been devastated by the war. The people. still living there have been given the. chance to escape starvation and. violence. [music] But their future is. uncertain and includes a journey deeper. into Russia controlled territory. [music] We speak to our correspondent in. Keith. If this is successful, the. Russians with the White House in future.

can say, "Look what we can achieve when. President Zilinski is not involved. making life difficult.". >> And we'll learn more about life in. Alleski from a journalist based just. [music] across the river in Hersel. >> There's no food, no power, no gas, no. heat, pretty much nothing. >> Plus, our Ukraine analyst will tell. [music] us more about the situation. along the front lines. >> Russian troops haven't really gained any. territory. In fact, Russian troops have. been on the back foot. [music].

>> The city of Alleski has been on the. front line under Russian occupation. since the start of the war in Ukraine. Residents say they have little access to. power or clean water. Buildings have. been reduced to rubble and dead bodies. are lying in the streets. 24,000 people. once lived in Alleski, though only about. 2,000 live there now. and many of them. have been desperate to leave. Over the. last three days, that opportunity has. materialized. A temporary ceasefire.

brokered in part by the US first lady. Melania Trump and Pope Leo allowed mines. to be cleared and aid convoys to enter. And around 750 people were given the. chance to evacuate during a 4-hour. window today. But the journey out is a. complicated one. As I heard from our. correspondent in Kev, Dan Johnson, >> they'll be driven back to Crimea under. Russian occupation, then apparently put. on a Russian military transport plane to. be flown to Bellarus. And then from.

there, they'll be driven to Ukraine's. northern border to return home. But you. can see why people may be skeptical, especially having lived under Russian. occupation and bombardment for the last. few years and having uh only just. escaped with their lives. some of them. how cautious they are of being handed to. the Russians going deeper into Russian. controlled territory. Some suspect. they'll be interrogated, have their. phones searched and that that may lead. to further detention and may delay them. getting back to Ukraine. They could in.

theory just cross the river into. Ukrainian controlled territory, but the. practical issue is that all the bridges. crossing that river were blown up by the. Russians in the early days of the war. So actually getting across the river is. tricky. And apparently the river banks. are very heavily mined. So that entire. area is dangerous. Even if there was a. way to cross by boats, there would be. serious risks. And we know in the. process of trying to clear a safe route. for evacuation by road, at least two. people have been killed at clearing. mines in the past couple of days. So.

that underlines the risk that people are. facing here. and it perhaps suits the. Russians uh to have this route. controlled through their own uh. territory at the same time so that they. are essentially managing this operation. even though there are Ukrainian. officials involved. >> Are there any indications that the. Russians and Ukrainians might be open to. further truths? >> The Russian side has expressed a hope. that this could be successful and then. lead to perhaps uh being replicated in.

other places. The expectation is this. ceasefire will end on Sunday. That was. the arrangement and I don't think. anyone's expecting it to be e extended. uh in terms of its duration or or its. extent in the area that's covered. One. risk is that when this ends the fighting. may be even more fierce than it was. before because presumably the Russians. in fact both sides will have had this. opportunity to to resupply their forces. So it could be that the Hersan region on. the resumption of hostilities is even.

more in the front line in terms of the. firefight. Whether this can be. replicated elsewhere will depend on how. successful this evacuation is and then. how it is framed. Whether the Russians. try to claim propaganda value from this, try to present themselves as a. humanitarian force that's shown mercy to. these people in allowing them out and. whether they use that to try and gain. advantage with the White House. It's. notable that President Zalinski has had. nothing to do with this. He's not been. involved in any of the negotiations as. far as we know. He's commented on it in.

the most minimal way. Perhaps that's him. creating some distance in case this goes. wrong or it's seen as a Russian. propaganda exercise. But it may also. mean that if this is successful, the. Russians with the White House in future. can say, "Look what we can achieve when. President Zalinski is not involved. making life difficult." As the. evacuation was beginning, I spoke to. Zarena Zabrriski, a US journalist in the. Ukrainian city of Herson, just across. the river from Alleski. She began by. telling me about conditions inside.

Alleski. >> Starting in December 2025, uh there were reports uh arriving that. there's no food, no power, no gas, no. heat, pretty much nothing. And with as. the months went by, the situation. deteriorated. I've been uh speaking to. the residents for about nine months by. now and I saw how uh it developed. basically into humanitarian crisis. These people have been subjected to.

Russian uh physical violence for four. years. Many have disappeared. Many have. been killed. U many have been tortured. or imprisoned. Many have lost their. lives and limbs uh on minds trying to. get out. But those who did come to. Ukraine uh spoke to me about horrendous. scenes really. And now we have the. ceasefire um uh brokered by the US uh uh.

Melania Trump uh and uh the uh ombsman. of both countries have achieved this. agreement. Right now, as we speak, uh se. uh 750 seats are available uh on 25. buses plus ambulances to pick up people. who want to leave Alashki and we know. that there are about 1,500 to 2,000. people still residing there. We don't. have the exact number. Uh from my.

sources I understand that anywhere from. 300 to 1,000 want to evacuate. Uh but. nobody gives an exact number. There. different lists uh that are circulating. within Allesashki. I don't believe at. this point anybody knows uh how many. people actually want to leave. Uh some. people want to go to Ukraine. Uh there. are some people who are confused and. don't know what they want to do. And I. have to say there's quite a lot of.

confusion going on. Uh the lack of. communication lines doesn't help. Uh the. connection has been extremely bad. throughout this whole nine months. period. But the last three days there's. almost no possibility to speak to anyone. there. However, within the last uh two. hours or so, we started to receive the. signal from Starlinks installed around. the hospital in Alleskia and that has. been done specially for uh this online.

streaming. And uh so we started to. receive the first fragments of people. arriving, people with their uh bags, people with their pets waiting for. evacuation. And Zerena, we understand. that the Russians went in and tried to. clean up a bit before the live streaming. started. >> Yeah, not a little bit. from everything. I know and I spoke to quite a few people. through various sources. Uh they. actually brought equipment from a nearby.

town of Radansk about um 10 to 20. kilometers away and um they were. painting walls uh painting curbs even uh. following very much ironically the. Ponkan village scenario which Russia is. very good at. Uh so um they're also. prepared psychologically because. humanitarian aid was delivered yesterday. and distributed uh so the hungry people.

would be more content for a look at how. the ceasefire and evacuation in Alleski. fits into the wider picture of the war. I spoke to Vitali Shvchenko a Russia and. Ukraine specialist with BBC monitoring. As far as ceasefires in Ukraine go, this. is a very unusual truth. First of all, because of the fact that it's lasted so. long, and it's tempting to see uh what's. going on in Alleski as a sign of of hope.

of Russia and Ukraine finally coming. together to to resolve their differences. and and try and help civilians. But the. reality is that Russian attacks because. of which so many civilians have been. dying, they they continued. Just. yesterday, more than 20 people died. across Ukraine. So, this is a very local. story. There's probably a glimmer of. hope in it, but there's so much more. that needs to be done to to help.

civilians across Ukraine. >> Batali, what's the situation along all. of the front line right now? Is Russia. gaining more territory? Is Ukraine able. to claw back territory in some places? >> This year, Russian troops, they haven't. really gained any territory. In fact, Russian troops have been on the back. foot in parts um of of the front line. And this appears to be a huge reason why.

Russia seems to have switched to a new. tactic where the number of attacks. killing civilians, it's it's. skyrocketing. The United Nations says. that uh just this year uh the number of. civilian casualties shot up by 55%. compared to to last year. And many. analysts are saying that this is because. Russia wants to make Ukraine unlivable. because it's struggling to make any.

progress whatsoever on the front line. >> And that's all for now. To hear more. about the topics we covered today, you. can find the audio version of the Global. News podcast wherever you get your. podcasts. If you'd like to get in touch, our contact details are below. I'm Celia. [music] Hatton. Until next time, goodbye.