‘We came back from hell’, say Ukrainians after years in Russia-occupied front-line city

Olha has one word to describe what life has been like in the front-line city of Oleshky over the past few years: “Horror”.

Disembarking alongside her from a coach in the Ukrainian region of Chernihiv with their immediate family and dog, her husband Viacheslav put it this way: “We came back from hell.”

The couple were among hundreds of residents evacuated from the Russian-occupied city who crossed into northern Ukraine via Belarus on Saturday, many reuniting with loved ones they had not seen for years.

Oleshky, seized by Russia during the first few days of its full-scale invasion in February 2022, is trapped on one side by the Dnipro River and on the other side by Russian forces.

Olha and Viacheslav had lived there with their son and daughter, both in their 30s. Even as the shelling around them intensified, they feared that trying to escape could be even more dangerous, with routes mined and subject to drone attack.

As supplies dwindled, the couple said they made an attempt to find food by crossing through minefields earlier this month. “People were stepping on mines, dying and being maimed, all just to survive,” Olha told the BBC.

Those who were too afraid to go out in the city had resorted to cooking garden weeds to survive.

“We saw that the situation wasn’t getting any better, so we realised we had to get out,” Olha said.