The Ukrainian city of Oleshky has been under Russian occupation since 2022. Many residents are isolated from the outside world and living in severe conditions. Now, Kyiv aims to rescue them.
The situation is dire in Oleshky, a city located in southern Ukraine. When the nearby Kakhovka dam was destroyed in 2023, Oleshky was initially inundated with floodwaters and subsequently subjected to bombing. Today, the city is essentially disconnected from the outside world. However, up to 2,000 people still reside there, according to the Oleshky Military Administration. These are primarily pensioners and individuals with limited mobility—but there are also reportedly nearly 50 children.
Before Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, Oleshky had 24,000 inhabitants and was located in a popular tourist region. Of the 13 settlements in the district, five have been completely destroyed, according to officials. Yet people continue to live in the surrounding area.
How Oleshky became a trap
Leaving Oleshky has become nearly impossible. The city itself and all access roads have been mined by the Russian military. Previously, the Antonivka Road Bridge over the Dnipro River connected Oleshky with the regional capital Kherson, which remains under Ukrainian control. But the bridge no longer exists. It was destroyed by the Russians in November 2022, after they withdrew from the right bank of the river and relocated to the left bank.
"In Oleshky, people are dying due to landmines, direct strikes on their homes, or shrapnel," Ksenia Archipova, a former resident of Oleshky who is currently assisting with evacuations on a regular basis, told DW. "The hospital runs on generators, but there's virtually no fuel. Complex surgeries, such as amputations after mine explosions, are not feasible," she said.
This was also corroborated by Natalia, who lived under Russian occupation for nearly 18 months before departing after the destruction of the Kakhovka dam. "People can barely survive; they have no access to electricity or water. There are almost no medicine supplies, there is a shortage of food, and if anything is available, everyone stands in long lines to buy something, even though they have very little money. Roadsides are covered with landmines that can detonate when cyclists or pedestrians pass by. That's how many people are dying," Natalia told DW.
She noted that she still has relatives and acquaintances in the city with whom she maintains contact—due to its proximity to Kherson, Oleshky is within range of Ukraine's mobile phone network. She stated that it was extremely dangerous for people in Oleshky to communicate with her and others in non-occupied Ukraine, as Ukrainian SIM cards are prohibited in Russian-occupied territories, along with all contact with Ukrainians. But people continued to take the risk, using solar panels from partially destroyed buildings to charge their old mobile phones.
Kyiv calls for humanitarian corridors
Already isolated, the situation for people in Oleshky worsened further last winter. The number of landmines on roads reached such a level that many of those transporting food supplies from other occupied territories to the city stopped doing so out of fear for their lives. This nearly led to a complete breakdown of food supplies in February, Tetyana Hasanenko, the head of the Oleshky Military Administration in the Kherson Region, told DW.
"From March, there was effectively a famine in Oleshky, because almost no food was available from mid-January until February. On May 4, a truck carrying supplies arrived in Oleshky, but there were no further deliveries after that. People have no electricity; they have to cook over open fires, and refrigerators are not working," Hasanenko added.
She said that now Kyiv wanted to help save the remaining residents of Oleshky. Various authorities are involved in evacuation efforts, including the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry, Ukraine's human rights commissioner, and also international aid organizations. She stated that humanitarian corridors were being discussed, but their establishment did not depend solely on Ukraine, and Russia was currently using Oleshky's civilians as human shields. "We are dealing with Russian war criminals. A humanitarian corridor would only be possible under the supervision of international missions—the United Nations, the Red Cross, or other organizations," she said.
Moscow will not accept a ceasefire
Ukraine's Commissioner for Human Rights Dmytro Lubinets described the situation as a "humanitarian disaster." "There isn't enough food, medicine, or drinking water," he told DW. At the beginning of March, he said, he had received calls for help from residents of the occupied city, after which he had turned to the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC). Simultaneously, he held talks with his Russian counterpart at the time, Tatyana Moskalkova.
According to Lubinets, the ICRC announced at the end of April that it was ready to supply as many buses as needed to evacuate the people of Oleshky. Ukrainian media outlets quoted Lubinets as saying that Ukrainian officials had then coordinated the technical details of a possible evacuation from Oleshky and other localities on the left bank of the Dnipro. In total, there are some 6,000 civilians, including 200 children, who are waiting to leave the area. Currently, Kyiv is awaiting Moscow's confirmation of a date for a truce to begin the evacuation.
Ukraine asks for international help
In the meantime, Lubinets has been trying to draw the attention of the international community to the situation in Oleshky. Ukraine's Foreign Ministry has also announced that Kyiv intends to raise the precarious humanitarian situation with the United Nations and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE). "We urge the international community to take immediate, concrete action to save our citizens in the occupied Kherson region," the ministry said in a statement.
Searching for evacuation routes
Some people have taken matters into their own hands and are trying to leave on their own. Archipova is helping: "To reach them, we advance 100 meters (109 yards) at a time, checking the area for mines, before giving the all-clear to a vehicle, and that's how we move forward step by step. Every week, we evacuate seven to 12 people," she said, adding that there is financial support from the Ukrainian aid organization Save Ukraine. Archipova explained that people are initially taken to the Russian-occupied city of Skadovsk and then via Russia to the Ukrainian-Belarusian border. This is currently the safest way to leave Russian-occupied territories and reach Kyiv-controlled territory.
"However, only people with IDs can leave Oleshky on that route," stressed Archipova. Those who do not have any or have lost them have to wait for the occupiers to issue a replacement, she added. "People without documents, whose entire belongings were burned during attacks, are unable to pass the checkpoints. That's why I advise them to obtain Russian passports, just to enable them to flee. For this, however, the Russians demand that three neighbors verify their identity. How are they going to find those?"
In the meantime, therefore, many are remaining in Skadovsk. For example, families with children, who are also waiting for a Russian passport.
And for those who only have Ukrainian papers, it has become almost impossible to leave Russian-controlled areas. "Those who try endure terrible checks that last six to seven hours," Archipova said.
The Russian occupation authorities have systematically raised the hurdles for people without Russian citizenship, so that holders of Ukrainian documents only are largely stuck.
This article was originally published in Ukrainian.