Oleshky under siege: a city where people eat grass, hide bodies in a hospital basement and wait for an evacuation that never comes
Oleshky, a Russian-occupied city just nine kilometres from Kherson, is going through the hardest period in its modern history. Residents are trapped, with no safe way out, no food and no rescue in sight. Locals, their relatives and volunteers have shared messages with Ukrainska Pravda that show the scale of the catastrophe.
"I'll say it plainly: we're in absolute hell here. People are no longer boiling grass soup just for the animals, but for themselves too. And as for bread, I'm not even going to start talking about that."
"No food or medicine deliveries. No evacuation. No help of any kind. People are surviving however they can."
"Two men were carrying food from Radensk to Oleshky. On the way, they came under drone attack and both were killed. The food they were carrying stayed lying next to them. The sausage is untouched – the dogs won't eat it. They're eating the dead instead."
"The city is under blockade. People are dying of hunger. There's no food even in the hospital. The orcs have blocked and mined everything. And they are taking away the last of what people have."
"If the hospital closes, the city will die."
"If people stay, they're doomed."
The city has been on the brink of humanitarian catastrophe for nearly a year, since the end of 2025. Food supplies were last brought into Oleshky on 26 May. Since then, there have been no proper deliveries, leaving people close to starvation.
But food is not the only problem. Since the occupation began four years ago, and after the destruction of the Kakhovka Hydroelectric Power Plant, the city has had no electricity, gas or drinking water. There is also a critical shortage of medicine. The hospital is the only thing still just about functioning, but even the staff there cannot always provide basic first aid.
All roads and approaches to Oleshky are mined. The city lies just a few kilometres from Ukrainian-controlled territory – close enough for drones from both sides to reach it freely. The skies above Oleshky are hunted daily, with drones targeting one another and anything moving on the ground below. Commercial hauliers who tried to reach the city by car with food in the summer came under heavy fire and had to turn back.
Evacuation is impossible. Oleshky is under complete blockade.
The Ukrainian side has appealed to both the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and its partners to help evacuate civilians. Six months of talks have produced no result. Russia, which has controlled the city since February 2022, has not agreed to a humanitarian corridor and is using local residents as a human shield against Ukraine's defence forces.
"I always say: it's the 21st century out here, but what is happening there feels like some kind of ghetto," says a volunteer who helps people escape the city.
Ukrainska Pravda has gathered testimony from Oleshky residents, their relatives, volunteers, officials and service members. We report on how how the city is surviving under occupation and whether there is any way out of a place where every road is closed.
Five hours on the road for food
Oleshky is an old Cossack town on the left bank of the Dnipro, near Kherson. Before the full-scale war, tourists and people from the oblast centre came here for the quiet and for the landscape: a place where the semi-desert of huge sand dunes meets pine forest, and forest gives way to the Dnipro floodplains. Residents of Oleshky, in turn, used to travel to Kherson, just nine kilometres away across the river. Since late February 2022, after Russia occupied the left bank and the bridges were destroyed, the connection between the two cities has been cut.
Oleshky is not the only place on the left bank facing humanitarian disaster. Food, medicine and transport links are also a problem in Hola Prystan, Stara Zburivka, Nova Zburivka and other settlements in the oblast.
But the situation is critical in Oleshky and the surrounding villages of the hromada (an administrative unit designating a village, several villages, or a town, and their adjacent territories). Volunteers estimate that up to 1,500 people remain in the city, including around 40 children. A further 4,000 people, including around 150 children, remain in the villages. Before the full-scale invasion, the hromada had a total population of almost 40,000.
With no electricity, people now rarely manage to contact their relatives. Some go months without getting in touch at all. Those who manage to charge their phones from a generator sometimes have only 20 or 30 seconds to call, or just enough time to send a text. Most often, they ask whether there is any way to leave and complain about the lack of food.
Food supplies were last brought into Oleshky at the end of May, when local businesspeople managed to get two commercial vehicles into the town.
Every attempt since then has failed. On 2 June, in one such attempt, four cars hit mines and two people were killed. By the end of summer, trying to enter the city had become pointless because of the constant attacks.
"The situation in our town is simply horrific. People have run out of food. They're cooking themselves a little soup from grass, throwing in purslane, goosefoot, amaranth. I won't even mention the animals – it's even worse for them. I just cry and cry. I don't know what to do," a local resident of Oleshky says.
Over the summer, people survived on whatever they had grown in their vegetable patches. Almost no one goes into the forest on either side of Oleshky, where they once gathered berries and mushrooms, or to the river, where they used to fish. They are afraid. If mines can be lying on streets near the centre of town, and loitering drones can hunt there, then places with tall grass and no one around are even more dangerous.
So locals ate their own vegetables and fruit. Some caught pigeons or pheasants. Others cooked borshch "the new way" – with eggs, courgettes, tomatoes and grass. People traded food among themselves. Some was bought and sold at a small makeshift market that sprang up near the hospital. But prices there are not just high. They are almost absurd: eggs sell for UAH 800 (US$18) a dozen, potatoes and onions for UAH 500 (US$11), courgettes for UAH 250 (US$5.60), tomatoes for UAH 200 (US$4.50) and peppers and carrots for UAH 75 (US$1.70) each.
"A neighbour brought courgettes to the hospital to give away for free," says a man whose acquaintances remain in Oleshky. "Someone he knew came up and asked: 'How much?' He said he was giving them away. The man burst into tears, thanked him and said that last time he had paid RUB 500, or US$6, for them. So even under blockade and hunger, there are people who profit from other people's misery." .
Some people take the risk and walk to the village of Radensk, 20 kilometres away, to get food. But such attempts are rare. The roads are mined, drones are hunting overhead, and a person on foot is easy to spot in open terrain. Even so, the walk takes around five hours, sometimes longer. One woman recently made the trip to Radensk for the first time. She told Ukrainska Pravda that prices there are lower and it is actually possible to buy some food. As well as shopping for herself, she bought supplies for loved ones she is helping to keep alive in Oleshky.
"I'm still coming to my senses after the trip to Radensk. I cycled there but walked back. I loaded myself up with almost 85 kilograms: a sack of grain, a carton of cigarettes for RUB 1,500 [US$18], 5kg of potatoes, onions, cabbage, peppers, pasta. I could barely carry it. I want to go again because it's not enough – and that was for three families.
That's how we survive. The main thing is not to get terrorised on the way," says an Olesky resident.
People who venture out to Radensk to look for food are stocking up for now or for late autumn. Selling anything is out of the question, because no one knows whether they will have another chance to leave. The Russians are also constantly hovering overhead with drones and can strike people at any moment.
All the roads leading out of Oleshky have turned into roads of death.
Volunteer Kseniia Arkhipova, who is originally from the city herself and still keeps in touch with people there, told UP that there have been many cases of Russian soldiers robbing people, attacking convoys carrying food to Oleshky and taking everything for themselves. Weapons are supplied to Russian forces, but food is not always available. So some local residents have even started writing on their gates or fences: "No food", "There is no food" or "Elderly people live here".
"If they [Russian soldiers] have to carry 20 kilograms of drones, ammunition or 20 kilograms of food, what are they going to carry? Obviously, the drones," she says. "Some soldiers spent 13 days getting to Oleshky during a rotation – travelling through fields and woods and along destroyed roads. So they may be sitting there hungry themselves, without food.
"People are robbed every day. An old woman I know had everything taken from her. She asked them: 'How am I supposed to survive the winter? What are you doing?' And they told her to shut up. They themselves admit that they do not care about people – they came to make money and that's it."
As winter approaches, the situation is only getting worse. Tetiana Hasanenko, Head of the Oleshky City Military Administration, told UP that it is not the case that some families have food while others do not. Everyone is going hungry.
"A few days ago, I heard for the first time that there are already cases of individual families eating dogs. A week ago, I was denying that such information was true, but now someone from there has confirmed it to me. There really is nothing to eat. The situation is not just getting worse by the day; it is getting worse by the hour.
And there is no chance of rescue. People have two options: either die of starvation or be caught by a drone or artillery strike and shot dead, because they will be killed. There is no third option. The chances of staying there without food and surviving are zero," Tetiana says.
Travelling to Radensk or other settlements to look for food will be impossible in winter. It is like playing Russian roulette: the ground will freeze and become covered with snow, while all the routes out of the city and the surrounding fields are littered with mines.
A hospital that no longer treats patients and a morgue overflowing with bodies
Until now, people in Oleshky who had run completely out of food and become too weak to carry on would go to the local hospital. The staff fed them whatever they could. However, volunteers say that even the hospital is running short of food. And even when food or fuel for the generator has somehow been delivered, there has been nothing left for other residents.
"The hospital has split into two camps," says the son of a man who has remained in Oleshky. Those who are loyal to the Russian regime have some food, and sometimes even meat and alcohol. But people who are called 'Ukraine supporters' have nothing. The hospital's senior supply manager has taken everything from the most recent deliveries that had been brought in as humanitarian aid and distributed it among his own people. He tells others that he has 200 people with disabilities and will give it to them first. But in reality, he sells everything: he gives petrol and food to whoever he wants. And people can see all of this."
However, even the hospital's continued operation is now in question. Civilian patients have already started being turned away. And, according to UP's sources, the hospital had been operating on a very limited basis even before this, so it would be simpler to say that it is effectively closed. There is nothing with which to provide even basic medical assistance – they can only stop bleeding. There are no medicines or antibiotics and no equipment. The generator is switched on once every few days because there is no petrol either.
"Things are really bad there," says Kseniia. It is running on its last legs. The hospital is asking local people to bring whatever porridge, grains or other food they have so they can at least give breakfast to bedridden patients, including those with amputations. It is the only place people can still go to spend the night because it is not being attacked. They can stay there and have some hot porridge if they manage to cook it while the generator is providing electricity. But the situation there is critical. And if the hospital stops working, it will be the end for Oleshky."
The hospital is the city's last stronghold. No other essential infrastructure – pharmacies or shops – is operating. Ambulances aren't operating either because some of Oleshky's streets are mined. If people are brought to the hospital at all, they are transported on a garden trolley. Many local residents have died of starvation or illness, been killed in military strikes or blown up by mines. Some were buried by relatives right in their yards or vegetable gardens, while others were simply left lying in the street.
"Usually, people who have suffered traumatic amputations or injuries are left lying there [in the street] until dogs eat them," says Tetiana. "Or they are simply covered with a piece of cloth. And they will lie there until worms eat the bodies."
The bodies of the dead were once kept in a morgue operating on the hospital grounds in Oleshky. Now, because the building has been damaged, the bodies have had to be moved to the basement of one of the hospital's other buildings, which is now overflowing with corpses. Some have been there for more than four months – since May.
"Everything is leaking and stinking in the hospital morgue," says Kseniia. The bodies in those black bags have decomposed. But why do they [Russian forces] say that no one is allowed to bury the bodies themselves? Because they want to take the bodies to Henichesk for forensic examination and produce a report saying that the Armed Forces of Ukraine are shooting people and attacking houses, and that people died from mine and blast injuries, artillery fire or drone strikes. Then they can pass all of this on to the UN. And of course, the forensic reports say whatever they need them to say. Although I am certain that they do not even open those bags containing the bodies."
A road of death, but also a road of life
There are no Ukrainian troops in Oleshky. They monitor the city from the right bank of the Dnipro River using drone cameras.
"The Russians are living in people's houses or trying to dig trenches on the outskirts and take up positions there," Yevhen Voronetskyi, a serviceman from Ukraine's 34th Borysfen Separate Marine Brigade, told UP. "Their artillery is stationed a little further away. They have tried to move it closer, but the closer you move it to the riverbank, the further it can fire towards Kherson. And we are trying to keep the artillery away. We patrol constantly and try to cover the sky with drones so that we can monitor everything happening in Oleshky."
The Russians attack the city's main road with drones while simultaneously convincing people that it is Ukraine's defence forces who are preventing them from leaving and who have also mined the roads. Yevhen explains that remote mining does exist and that the Ukrainian Armed Forces do mine some routes to prevent Russian troops from receiving weapons supplies. However, they leave the main road clear so that people can get out. It is in the Russians' interests for civilians to remain in Oleshky because they use them as human shields.
"Their main objective is to prevent people from leaving the city. This allows the occupying forces to blend in with the local population. They change into civilian clothes, violating the Geneva Convention, and do not look like combatants. But we patrol the sky and have already worked out what each of them looks like," he adds.
There are times when Ukrainian defenders can hold back strikes on Oleshky to protect civilians, while Russian forces use the opportunity to launch active attacks towards Ukrainian positions.
Asked whether it is true that the Russians might have brought weapons in with some humanitarian aid during spring and summer 2026, the Ukrainian serviceman answered neither "yes" nor "no". He did, however, say that it would be "very logical". A vehicle supposedly carrying medicines, food or fuel into the city can disappear from Ukrainian drones' field of view for 10-15 minutes, and that is enough time to intimidate the driver and put "something" into the vehicle. Otherwise, it is difficult to explain where the Russians are getting ammunition and drones in a city that is completely cut off.
The Ukrainian serviceman says that the defence forces help local residents leave the city via the main road and sometimes use drones to guide people along a route that is safer, relatively speaking.
"There are not that many ways out of Oleshky," explains Voronetskyi. "And the central road can at least be monitored to some extent. So it is a road of death, but also a road of life. Of course, there are often aerial battles too, when the Russians try to shoot down our drone with theirs, and we use ours to shoot down theirs. And all of this happens at a height of 1.5 - 2 metres above the ground when you are using a drone to guide people. We want as many people as possible to leave the city. If there were no civilians there, it would be much easier for us to operate."
Is there a way out of occupied Oleshky?
The only way out for people in occupied Oleshky and the surrounding villages is evacuation to territory controlled by Ukraine. But as of now, there are no signs that Russia is prepared to give up using civilians as a human shield against the Ukrainian Armed Forces and allow people to leave through a humanitarian corridor. Of course, Russian propaganda doesn't miss the opportunity to claim that Kyiv is to blame for people starving in the Russian-occupied town and that "provocations" by the defence forces would be possible during any evacuation.
Russian sources cover the humanitarian catastrophe in Oleshky selectively and through a political lens. They reduce everything to two claims: that local residents are suffering because of Ukraine's actions, while the occupation administration (which in fact has not been there since 2023, having fled after the flooding caused by the destruction of the Kakhovka Hydroelectric Power Plant) is providing aid, medical care and basic governance. Meanwhile, attention is directed away from the fact of the occupation and its consequences, and towards the image of Russia as the country which is "saving" people.
Ukrainian Human Rights Commissioner Dmytro Lubinets told Ukrainska Pravda that Ukraine had reached agreements with the Russian side, while the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) was supposed to assist with the evacuation of people from the grey zone. The list of local residents, as well as arrangements for the defence forces to maintain a ceasefire, had been agreed. However, as of 22 September, Russia has still not confirmed its readiness to allow the evacuation.
Lubinets said he is preparing renewed letters to the ICRC, the UN and Ukraine's partners, as the situation in Oleshky is critical.
"I do not want to create false expectations among people or give specific timeframes [for when the evacuation might take place] until Russia confirms its readiness for a humanitarian mission," the commissioner said. "But we are using every available mechanism to secure the evacuation of civilians who have effectively found themselves trapped."
He added that his office, together with the defence forces, is currently trying to provide local residents with food and humanitarian aid.
The ICRC confirmed to Ukrainska Pravda that it is maintaining contact with the Ukrainian and Russian authorities regarding Oleshky. The Committee is ready to provide support for an evacuation as soon as it is safe for people to do so.
Locals do not believe a humanitarian corridor will be established. In more than four years, there has not been a single official evacuation of civilians from Oleshky. Not after the destruction of the Kakhovka Hydroelectric Power Plant, when homes remained flooded, nor now, when the city has found itself on the brink of starvation.
Stefan Vorontsov, a volunteer with the NGO Humanity, told UP that the most practical and safest option could be an agreed evacuation across the Dnipro towards Kherson. This would make the process quicker, while avoiding the need to travel through occupied territories and Russia. The Red Cross could provide security for the humanitarian corridor.
"The fact that the evacuation is not being carried out across the Dnipro is a very big mistake. I see that this is not even being communicated [by the Ukrainian authorities]. We actually have people from Oleshky who are afraid of filtration and of travelling through Russia for several days. Buses would be able to evacuate a maximum of 300 people. And this is a good initiative. But there are many more people than that," Vorontsov says.
No one crosses the Dnipro independently as the front line runs along the river, with sabotage and reconnaissance groups and military personnel operating there, making it extremely dangerous in general. Fighting for the river islands between Kherson and Oleshky is still ongoing.
But the fact remains that some people did manage to escape the city through mined fields. They were driven by the thought: "I would rather die on the road than die of hunger," and would make their way on foot, one or two at a time, from Oleshky towards Radensk or Hola Prystan. From there, they could take a taxi to Nova Kakhovka or Skadovsk. After that, everyone went their own way.
For those who are only now hearing about the situation in Oleshky, one question naturally arises: why did the locals not leave earlier? The answer is that escaping the occupation is not easy, and people are facing several problems at once.
The first is that some locals do not have their documents because they were burned or destroyed by the flooding after the destruction of the Kakhovka hydroelectric power plant. To leave the occupied territory, a Russian ID is generally required, and not everyone has one. To obtain one, people need proof of identity or Ukrainian documents. But people in the occupied territory cannot obtain these from the state or Ukrainian authorities. Relatives or acquaintances have approached government institutions asking for copies or electronic versions of Oleshky residents' Ukrainian IDs but have never received them.
The second problem is the local people, particularly older residents, who do not want to leave their homes.
"'I built this house and I am not going anywhere' is the statement of a person who genuinely has nowhere to go," says a volunteer who helps people from the occupied territories. "Ukraine has nothing to offer them. It is not as though an elderly woman arrives, volunteers take her by the hand, give her an address and tell her to go to such-and-such a village where there is a house. They arrange her pension and provide her with assistance as an internally displaced person. Nothing like that exists – there is no help, no houses. People leave and think: 'What do we do next? Where are we going to go?'"
The third problem is that some men of conscription age are afraid that the Russians will pull them out of their cars at checkpoints and either take them to a basement or send them to fight for Russia in the so-called "special military operation".
Many locals also hoped that after the successful counteroffensive and the liberation of Kherson from Russian occupation in November 2022, the Ukrainian Armed Forces would enter Oleshky in the same triumphant fashion. The same mood persisted at the beginning of 2023, as people believed that the military would cross the Dnipro.
A year or two later, some had already begun to feel guilty for waiting and remaining under occupation. Then the Kakhovka Hydroelectric Power Plant's floodwaters washed away some of the locals' hopes and plans, along with all their documents and belongings. Without documents, they became hostages of their own city.
Ester Vratarova, a volunteer with the NGO Humanity, explained to Ukrainska Pravda why people had not left Oleshky, saying that it was extremely difficult to do so, while Russian propaganda was spreading the idea that people simply did not want to leave.
"Leaving an occupied territory is difficult – it is not an easy walk in the park. And not everyone has access to information as it is spread mostly by word of mouth. There have been no organised state evacuations, and there still are none. So blaming people who were literally taken hostage, turned into a human shield and had their territory turned into a ghetto is completely immoral. And we must do everything we can to prevent this idea from spreading," Vratarova stresses.
A winter that people in Oleshky may not survive
There are still surviving houses in Oleshky, as well as parts of apartment blocks where some floors and basements remain intact. It is possible to find a roof over your head, but living under it is not always safe.
Last winter, three elderly women and a man froze to death in their flats, volunteers say. And these are only the cases they know about. It is impossible to count how many quiet deaths occur in Oleshky.
Under the Fourth Geneva Convention, responsibility for the population of an occupied territory lies with the occupying power. It is required to provide people with food, medical care and proper sanitary conditions. But the Russians have no regard for any international requirements. It is pointless to expect them to provide people in Oleshky with food.
"Russia is responsible for this territory," says Kseniia Arkhipova. "And if people remain there, they are doomed. Truly doomed to die. So while there is still an opportunity, they need to leave Oleshky on foot in one direction."
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha raised the humanitarian catastrophe in Oleshky as a separate issue at the 21-26 September UN General Assembly session. Meanwhile, as world leaders listen and discuss the issue from the rostrum, people in the small town on the bank of the Dnipro are facing one of the most difficult choices of their lives – try to get out or stay. And in either case, deadly danger hangs over them.
Natalia Bodnar, Anastasiia Zazuliak, Ukrainska Pravda
Translated by Tetiana Buchkovska, Ganna Bryedova and Anna Kybukevych
Edited by Shoël Stadlen