People are starving in Russian-occupied Oleshky, surviving on grass and weeds
Photo: Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha (Vitalii Nosach, RBC-Ukraine)
People in Russian-occupied Oleshky are starving and forced to survive on grass and weeds. The international community must intervene immediately, says Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha.
"People in temporarily occupied Oleshky are starving. There is almost nothing left to eat. Reports indicate that civilians are being forced to survive on grass and weeds, while medicines, clean water, electricity, and medical care are increasingly out of reach. Children are trapped in these conditions too," Sybiha stressed.
He noted that this suffering has a clear cause and a clear perpetrator. Russia caused this catastrophe in Oleshky through its illegal occupation and bears full responsibility for this humanitarian disaster, all its consequences, and the deaths of innocent civilians.
According to the minister, the international community must mobilize all available tools to reach the people in Oleshky, deliver humanitarian aid, and ensure the safe evacuation of those who want to leave.
The UN, the ICRC, and other international actors must use their mandates and channels to ensure immediate and unhindered humanitarian access.
"People there cannot survive on statements of concern. Humanitarian access and safe evacuation must become a reality, because every day matters," the foreign minister stressed.
Famine in Oleshky
Russia is blocking the evacuation from Oleshky, which has been under occupation since 2022.
The situation in the city sharply deteriorated after the Russians blew up the Kakhovka Hydroelectric Power Plant in June 2023. Oleshky was almost completely flooded at the time; people were killed, and the occupiers allowed evacuation only for residents with Russian passports.
Before the full-scale invasion, about 24,000 people lived in Oleshky, while today about 2,000 remain, including around 50 children.
The city has no electricity or gas supply, and over the past month, the delivery of food, medicines, and other essential items has been completely blocked.
Terrifying accounts are emerging from occupied Oleshky of how people are trying to survive amid the blockade created by Russia: they search for leftover food and gather grass because there is simply no other food.
Russian FPV drones are pursuing and attacking civilians, turning even an attempt to leave one's home into a deadly risk.
Ukraine is systematically raising the issue of the humanitarian situation in Oleshky on international platforms, including at the UN Security Council, the OSCE Permanent Council, and the UN General Assembly.
