Updated

Ukrainian soldiers evacuated Svitlana Podolska, 64, the last resident of Mala Tokmachka in Zaporizhzhia Oblast, after five months, Ukrainska Pravda reported. The rescue ended a long operation to evacuate civilians from the village, and the outlet reported it on 13 November 2026, though its article says the group reached safer territory on 21 October. A Russian drone killed the last other man living in the village on 10 April as he went out to look for cigarettes, leaving Podolska alone there. Russian forces attacked her property with drones seven times, and after her house was completely destroyed she asked the Ukrainian military for help. Weather, many Russian drones and mined roads kept vehicles from reaching her, so the evacuation took five months. In late September she set off on foot with soldiers of the 118th Separate Mechanised Brigade and two dogs, moving in short dashes at dusk to avoid Russian drones and swimming across a river three times. The article says she is now staying with her daughter, and soldiers from the 1st Mechanised Battalion of the 118th Brigade helped her rent accommodation.