'Hell on earth': Food supplies run out for last residents of Russian-occupied Oleshky
Roughly 2,000 civilians still trapped in Russian-occupied Oleshky have run completely out of food, prompting Ukrainian officials to warn of a humanitarian catastrophe. Kyiv accuses Moscow of deliberately starving residents and blocking evacuation.
Civilians trapped in the Russian-occupied city of Oleshky, across the Dnipro River from Kherson, say their food supplies have completely run out, leaving roughly 2,000 people facing what Ukrainians describe as "hell on earth." One woman, awaiting evacuation, said she has lost more than 40kg since the war began and now fears dying without proper nutrition after her shelter was destroyed.
Ukraine's foreign minister, Andrii Sybiha, raised the crisis at the UN general assembly in New York, warning of a looming "humanitarian catastrophe" and accusing Russia of being the sole obstacle to evacuation, saying occupying forces are deliberately starving residents. The Kremlin's spokesperson, Dmitry Peskov, acknowledged a "critical situation" but blamed Ukrainian forces for blocking aid deliveries.
From trickle to total halt
Food supplies reached the city, once home to 24,000 people, until as recently as May. Since then, expanded Russian minefields and drone coverage have cut off deliveries entirely. The crisis has been worsened by Ukraine's own drone campaign against Russian supply lines, which has left occupying frontline troops short of food — leading soldiers to seize what little civilians have managed to save.
Residents say they now survive on one meal a day, typically soup without potatoes, made from courgettes and foraged purslane weeds. On 1 September, a food convoy heading toward the city came under attack, with Kyiv and Moscow blaming each other.
Civilians used as shields, officials say
Tetiana Hasanenko, head of the Oleshky military administration operating from the Ukrainian-controlled side of the Dnipro, said conditions worsened sharply from December as Russian minefields grew denser, cutting off deliveries and access. The city has no electricity or functioning infrastructure, and residents can no longer grow their own food. Hasanenko also described an incident in which a 74-year-old man was killed by soldiers after refusing to let them search a cellar he was digging out.
Ukrainian officials believe Russian forces are deliberately delaying evacuation to keep civilians as human shields against a potential Ukrainian counteroffensive from Kherson. Hasanenko said that in nearly a thousand years of the city's history, residents have never endured conditions this dire, with bodies left lying in the streets because constant drone activity makes retrieval impossible.
