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| Occupiers fired at buildings and schools in Oleshki - File photo |
Residents in Russian-Occupied Ukrainian Town Risk Death for Food
KYIV/LONDON — October 8, 2026
Residents of the Russian-occupied Ukrainian town of Oleshky are facing severe shortages of food, water and medicine as they risk travelling along dangerous roads to find basic supplies.
Oleshky lies near the front line in the southern Kherson region, east of the Dnipro River. The main route out of the town passes through Russian-controlled territory and is reportedly filled with landmines, damaged vehicles and areas exposed to attack drones.
Residents said the last food deliveries to a local shop took place in May. With supplies running low, some people have been travelling about 20 km to Radensk by foot or bicycle to buy food and water.
One woman who recently made the journey said she was injured by a landmine while returning to Oleshky. She told the situation was so dangerous that local residents refer to the route as the "road of death."
Reuters could not independently verify her account, but it was consistent with accounts from other witnesses, officials and humanitarian workers familiar with conditions in Oleshky.
Ukraine's human rights ombudsman Dmytro Lubinets said civilians faced an impossible choice between remaining in the town without enough food or attempting a dangerous journey out.
Lubinets said Ukraine had offered a local ceasefire and evacuation routes for residents who wanted to leave, but that Russia had rejected the proposal. Russia has acknowledged serious problems with food and medical supplies in Oleshky, while blaming Ukraine for obstructing deliveries.
Oleshky had a pre-war population of about 24,000 people. Around 1,700 residents are believed to remain there, including 47 children, according to Danielle Bell, head of the UN Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine.
Video footage from the town, shared by a Ukrainian marine brigade and verified by Reuters, shows damaged and abandoned residential and administrative buildings. Residents also face unstable electricity, water and heating supplies.
Tetiana Hasanenko, head of the Ukrainian military administration for the area, said she remained in contact with people in Oleshky. She said residents understood that they could die from hunger or attacks if conditions did not improve.
Ukrainian forces do not have direct access to the town. The Ukrainian military has said it recently used drones to drop food to residents, although Reuters could not independently confirm those claims and some residents said they had not seen any such deliveries.
Ukraine's Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha said Russia bore responsibility for the humanitarian situation because it controls the occupied area. Russia's Defence Ministry and Russian-installed authorities in occupied Kherson did not respond to requests for comment.
Growing food shortage
Residents said food supplies had already become unreliable late last year, but conditions worsened sharply after May. Before then, Ukrainian volunteers had been able to bring food into the town and help some residents leave.
Since those deliveries stopped, many people have depended on food they can grow or supplies stored in their homes. With winter approaching, residents say those options are becoming increasingly difficult to maintain.
Larysa, a Ukrainian woman who left Oleshky after Russia's full-scale invasion in February 2022, said her husband remains in the town. She told Reuters in London that he was surviving mainly on vegetables and homemade flatbread prepared over an open fire.
The 72-year-old said her husband had been using old flour left from before the war. She said there were no eggs, dairy products or meat available and that his remaining food supplies were rapidly declining.
She has urged him not to travel to Radensk because of the dangers along the route. She described the journey as a life-or-death gamble.
Footage from the Ukrainian military shows numerous burned-out and abandoned vehicles along the road, while nearby buildings have sustained extensive damage.
As winter approaches, residents are running out of vegetables such as cucumbers, courgettes and tomatoes. Some also say they have little left to exchange for other necessities.
The woman who was injured by a landmine said there was no longer much food or other goods available for trade. She said she could only heat water over an open fire because gas cylinders were unavailable.
She also said some medicines in the town were past their expiration dates and that she had reduced her food intake to one meal a day, consisting of a small piece of flatbread with tomato and salt or honey.
The worsening conditions in Oleshky highlight the severe humanitarian pressures facing civilians living close to active front lines and in areas under Russian occupation. With winter approaching and regular supplies still disrupted, residents remain dependent on increasingly limited local resources and uncertain access to humanitarian assistance.
