People starving in occupied Oleshky near Kherson amid total blockade
Russian-occupied Oleshky near Kherson has been facing a near year-long humanitarian catastrophe, with food deliveries halted since May and around 1,500 residents, including children, surviving on soup made from grass. Evacuation remains impossible as Russia has refused to allow a humanitarian corridor.
The town of Oleshky, located just 9 kilometers from Kherson on the left bank of the Dnipro River and occupied since February 2022, is experiencing its worst crisis since the occupation began. According to testimonies from volunteers and local residents gathered by Ukrainska Pravda, the town is under complete blockade — without food, medicine, electricity, gas, or drinking water.
The last food delivery to Oleshky took place on May 26. Since then, every attempt to bring in supplies has failed, with some drivers killed by mines or drone strikes. Around 1,500 residents remain in the town, including roughly 40 children, and are cooking soup from nettles and other plants for both themselves and their pets. Prices at an improvised market near the local hospital have reached extreme levels.
Some residents risk a roughly 20-kilometer walk to the village of Radensk to buy food, a trip that can take up to five hours through mined and drone-monitored terrain. According to the head of the local military administration, some families have already resorted to eating dogs due to the total lack of food.
The only facility still partially functioning is the local hospital, though it too lacks medicine, food, and fuel for its generator. People with severe injuries or amputations are often left lying in the streets because ambulances cannot navigate mined roads. Bodies of the deceased are being stored in the hospital's basement after the town morgue was destroyed.
Ukraine has repeatedly appealed to the International Committee of the Red Cross and other partners to organize a civilian evacuation, but six months of negotiations have produced no results, as Russia has not agreed to establish a humanitarian corridor.
