"Oleshky is not living - it is surviving. No drinking water. No electricity. No gas. People are counting every sip of water to survive one more day."
At the beginning of April, Dmytro Lubinets, the Ukrainian Parliament Commissioner for Human Rights, reported on the humanitarian disaster
that happened in the city.
Oleshky is a part of the Kherson Oblast that is currently occupied. The city is located on the left bank of the Dnipro River, opposite Kherson, making it a frontline settlement where civilians live under Russian occupation.
In 2023, when Russian forces destroyed the Kakhovka Dam, Oleshky was flooded, and all infrastructure needed for everyday life was destroyed. As Tetiana Hasanenko, head of the Oleshky City Military Administration, told UkraineWorld, after four years of the full-scale invasion, nothing remains in the city, and people are forced to cook over open fires.
Since December 2025, Oleshky has been facing severe humanitarian conditions. In fact, the city is under siege, with no evacuations, food deliveries, or medical care.
The occupying Russian authorities, who have controlled the city since 2022, remain detached from the situation, as no evacuation measures are being carried out. Tetiana Hasanenko says the occupiers are keeping civilians in Oleshky as human shields.
The same view was expressed anonymously to UkraineWorld by Oleshky resident Vitalii, who recently managed to leave the city:
"Of course, they [ed. - the Russian military] use people as cover; it is not in their interest for people to leave here."
The Russian army is acting with no fear of being punished. It is doing whatever it wants and keeping the ordinary people in constant fear.
Tetiana Hasanenko said that in March of this year, a man was killed after he refused to let Russian soldiers into the basement where food was stored.
Locals say that the Russian army also kidnaps and kills people without reason. One such story was shared with UkraineWorld by Vitalii, who witnessed his acquaintances being taken away.
"We are sitting in the basement. They [ed. - the Russian military] come. An armed, drunk soldier says, 'Documents.' Well, fine, there were Russian passports. And if not, they'll just shoot you, that's it. Last time, they took my acquaintance - I don't know where he is now. Before that, they took another one. They came at night and took them somewhere. That's it - no one can find the person. But they had Russian passports."
Another form of attacks on civilians involves using them or their property as targets. In this way, the occupiers train new soldiers to operate drones, locals told UkraineWorld.
"They [ed. - the occupiers] are also training, especially the younger ones who arrived in 2025. They launch drones, and you can hear an impact two houses away. Locals ask them, 'Is this you?' - 'Yes, we are training,'" said an Oleshky resident.
The city's morgue is overwhelmed, and bodies sometimes lie in the streets. People die in their homes from cold and in the streets after shelling - from blood loss, amputations, blast injuries, and shrapnel wounds.
As Vitalii said, it is impossible to rescue people because ambulances operate only during daylight hours and do not reach some districts of the city. He saw his neighbour die from blood loss.
The situation in the city remains extremely difficult. People who escaped from Oleshky say the city has been completely destroyed, except for a few private houses.
The Oleshky City Military Administration reports that no schools remain
and that all municipal infrastructure has been destroyed.
Now, in Oleshky, where more than 20,000 people lived before the full-scale invasion, nearly 1700-1800 people live, including 47 children. All of them are hoping for evacuation.
Ukraine has appealed to international organizations and Russian authorities, calling for intervention and the creation of a safe corridor for civilian evacuation. However, there has been no official response so far.
