Residents utilized a four-hour window on Friday to leave the area, boarding a convoy of 25 buses arranged for up to 750 evacuees alongside ambulances designated for individuals with limited mobility.
Palii engaged in an emotional embrace with family upon arrival and described glimpses of life in Oleshky after previously withholding many details from relatives.
Life under occupation forced remaining inhabitants to extreme measures, with residents too afraid to venture outside resorting to cooking garden weeds to survive.
Having left Oleshky, the evacuees now face the immediate challenge of determining their next destinations and figuring out how to rebuild their lives.
Ukrainian evacuees reunited with their families after spending years trapped in the Russia-occupied front-line city of Oleshky.
Up to 6,000 people, including 200 children, were believed to still live in Oleshky and its surrounding areas, with 1,700 remaining inside the city itself.
"It happened, but I didn't tell them about it because I knew they would worry,"Tetiana said, noting that their children are married and do not live with them in the city. The couple, carrying a cat when they arrived in Chernihiv, said their entire home was burned down three years ago and that they had lived in an abandoned neighbour's house since.
Up to 6,000 people, including 200 children, were believed to still be living in Oleshky and its surrounding areas, with 1,700 in the city itself.
Residents had a four-hour window on Friday to leave, with a convoy of 25 buses brought in for up to 750 evacuees, along with ambulances for people with limited mobility.
After an emotional embrace, Palii described a glimpse of life in Oleshky, although he said he had, until then, kept many of the details from his family.