Civilians still living in the Russian-occupied Ukrainian city of Oleshky are facing severe food shortages, with residents reporting that supplies have run out and they are going hungry while waiting to be evacuated.
A message sent from the city described the situation in stark terms, saying that food for the roughly 2,000 civilians remaining in Oleshky and its surrounding villages had finally been exhausted. One woman in the besieged city said she had absolutely nothing to eat and could not leave, according to the account.
The city, which sits in the Kherson region of southern Ukraine, has been under Russian occupation since the early months of the full-scale invasion. The reported collapse of food supplies marks a further deterioration in conditions for those who have remained behind, many of whom have been unable or unwilling to leave.
Residents described a situation in which basic necessities have become impossible to obtain. The message from the woman indicated she was waiting to be evacuated by the occupying forces, suggesting that organised departures have either stalled or are not reaching all those in need.
Reports from the area also indicate that bodies are being left uncollected and are being eaten by dogs because of the deadly risk posed by drones. That detail points to a broader breakdown in civilian services and safety in the occupied territory, where movement is restricted and even the retrieval of the dead has become hazardous.
The account of starvation in Oleshky is consistent with earlier warnings from Ukrainian officials and humanitarian groups about conditions in occupied areas of the Kherson region. Access for aid organisations has been severely limited, and residents have reported shortages of food, medicine and other essentials for months.
The roughly 2,000 civilians estimated to remain in Oleshky and nearby villages represent a fraction of the city's pre-war population. Many residents fled westward to Ukrainian-controlled territory before the front line shifted, but those who stayed now face an increasingly desperate situation.
Evacuation efforts have been complicated by the security environment, with drone activity making road travel dangerous. The woman's message suggested she was still waiting for an opportunity to leave, but no timeline for her departure was given.
The reported food exhaustion in Oleshky follows a pattern seen in other occupied communities, where supply chains have been disrupted and residents have been left to rely on dwindling stocks or whatever they can forage. In some cases, people have resorted to eating weeds to survive.
There was no immediate independent confirmation of the number of people still in the city or of the exact conditions they face, but the message from inside the city provided a direct account of the shortages. The situation remains fluid, and further details on evacuation plans were not available.
The broader Kherson region has been the scene of repeated humanitarian crises since the war began, with flooding, shelling and occupation displacing hundreds of thousands of people. Oleshky, located near the Dnipro River, has been particularly isolated.
For the civilians still there, the immediate concern is survival. The message from the woman made clear that food had run out and that she had no means to obtain more, leaving her dependent on an evacuation that had not yet arrived.
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