The UN World Food Programme is providing emergency food assistance to more than 400 people who left the Russian-occupied city of Oleshky, in Ukraine’s Kherson region, during a brief local ceasefire.
Many arrived in worrying condition at medical facilities in Kyiv on Oct. 31 after being trapped by fighting, the agency said late on Sunday. They had endured months of severe shortages of food, medical supplies and other basic necessities, according to the World Food Programme.
Working with its national partner Iskra Dobra, a Ukrainian humanitarian nongovernmental organization, the agency provided hot meals as soon as the evacuees arrived. It will continue the meals for an initial two weeks. More evacuees are expected, and the agency said it “stands ready to scale up its assistance.”
The emergency food assistance is funded by the United States. World Food Programme Executive Director Luke J. Lindberg said that for people who endured months of fear, isolation and deprivation, the humanitarian pause offers a chance to reach safety and receive the help they need. He recognized the role of U.S. First Lady Melania Trump in helping to broker the ceasefire and expressed hope that it could open the door to sustained humanitarian access.
The World Food Programme had previously tried to support people in Oleshky but had not been granted access. The UN’s Emergency Relief Coordinator Tom Fletcher said the evacuation window, which ended on Sunday, “shows what is possible when parties put civilians first.” He said aid had been delivered to Oleshky at last, thanked First Lady Melania Trump and all involved, and called for aid to reach more people wherever they are.
The evacuation comes amid an increasingly dangerous environment for civilians and humanitarian operations across Ukraine. As of September, the World Food Programme recorded 134 security incidents affecting the agency and its partners since 2023, including 57 this year alone. Those incidents affected distribution points, vehicles, warehouses and staff.
Across the country, the agency reaches more than half a million people every month with food and cash assistance, focusing on communities near the front line.
Separately, UN Development Programme Goodwill Ambassador and actor Nikolaj Coster-Waldau has called for continued funding to help Ukrainian communities face another winter of war. During a week-long visit, he met families in Kyiv living on a few rationed hours of electricity a day. He also spent a night in a metro station in Kyiv used as a shelter during air raids.
He said statistics about damaged energy infrastructure can seem abstract, but the reality is personal. It affects whether children can study, whether families can stay warm, and whether people can work and plan for tomorrow, he said. He said support from partners is already making a difference, that critical equipment is in the country, and that it now needs to be installed and working.
Ukraine’s Ministry of Energy and the UN Development Programme are appealing for $500 million through the newly launched Ukraine Energy Installation Facility, which will install and commission energy equipment already in the country. Last year, the development programme helped keep power, heat and water flowing for 6.6 million people.
Coster-Waldau also met veterans retraining as humanitarian deminers. He visited Ukraine’s first dedicated underwater demining training centre, established by the development programme. He said there were air raids day and night, yet people were determined to keep working, creating and supporting one another, and that their resilience should never be taken for granted.