Hundreds of Ukrainians fleeing Russian-occupied Oleshky under a cease-fire First Lady Melania Trump helped broker were welcomed into safe territory Saturday.

Their arrival led to emotional scenes as some families, draped in blue and yellow Ukrainian flags, were reunited after nearly five years apart.

Many had been torn apart when Russian troops seized the town in the southern Kherson region at the start of the invasion in 2022.

By September, Oleshky had run out of food, electricity, medicine and other essentials, according to Ukrainian authorities.

“It was like I’d escaped from hell,” said Oleksandr, an evacuee.

“I didn’t go outside at all … where we were, where we lived, we couldn’t get any food. We just ate whatever people had left in their apartments – canned goods, pickles,” he told CNN.

“It was very difficult. There were a lot of drones. It was hard to move around the streets,” said Ivan Yevhenovych, 48, his hands still shaking as he held a cigarette.

“Since spring, there hasn’t really been any staple food left.”

Landmines and drone strikes were obliterating Ukrainian residents daily in Oleshky, a town that had a pre-war population of 24,000, Yevhenovych said.

The cease-fire, which Pope Leo XIV also called for, and started on Tuesday and runs through Sunday at 11 p.m. Humanitarian efforts saw roads to Oleshky cleared of mines, aid delivered and buses deployed to evacuate 750 people.

“Oleshky proves we can raise humanity above war. Together, we can build a peaceful planet, a world of promise for our children,” Melania Trump wrote on X.

From Oleshky, the evacuees were taken through Crimea, then flew to Belarus before being bused into Ukraine’s Chernihiv region, where they were welcomed with borscht and other Ukrainian food.

“We’re waiting for all this to end, for peace to come, and for victory,” said Larisa, a 54-year-old evacuee who lost a third of her body weight during the occupation.

She reunited with her husband Dmytro Saturday.

“There are so many people in the same situation as me. … It’s hard for everyone in the country,” she said.

The oldest evacuee was 94, and the youngest just barely one-year-old — and several pets were also rescued from the frontlines.

Despite the tensions between the warring countries, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky thanked the US and the first lady.

“I thank everyone around the world – every journalist, every political and civic leader, and every concerned person – who helped draw global attention to the situation in Oleshky and the true humanitarian catastrophe in Ukrainian territory temporarily occupied by Russia,” Zelensky wrote on X.

“When the world pays attention, people are rescued.”

Ukraine’s human rights commissioner traveled to Oleshky to accompany the evacuees out himself — the first senior official to enter Russian-occupied territory since the start of the war.

“We want the experience of Oleshky to be more than an isolated case,” Dmytro Lubinets wrote on X. “The ordeal and uncertainty are behind them. What lies ahead is the chance to recover and finally breathe a sigh of relief after living in constant fear for their lives.”

Meanwhile Zelensky said the United States, Ukraine and Russia are preparing for a trilateral meeting in the first half of November.

He discussed the meeting with Turkey President Erdoğan Saturday, noting the country as a possible location for the talks, which have been stalled since the Iran war.

“At every level, Russia must be sent signals that there is no alternative to peace and that support for Ukraine will not diminish,” Zelensky wrote on social media, saying the operation in Oleshky shows de-escalation is possible when Russia’s hand is forced.

With Post Wires