Food shortages deepen in Russian-occupied Oleshky

Residents of Oleshky in Ukraine’s occupied Kherson region are facing severe food shortages after regular deliveries to the town stopped at the end of May, according to Deutsche Welle. Tetiana Hasanenko, head of the Oleshky City Military Administration, described the situation as a famine and said about 6,000 people, including 180 children, remained in the area.

Oleshky, on the Russian-held left bank of the Dnipro River, has been occupied since Russia’s full-scale invasion began in February 2022. The town was also extensively flooded following the June 2023 destruction of the Kakhovka Dam. Residents have lived without electricity and gas and rely on wells for water.

One resident told DW that people were surviving on limited flour, garden produce and preserved food, with some trading household supplies for eggs. Available food has become extremely expensive: zucchini was reportedly selling for 1,000 rubles per kilogram, while a large sack of flour was offered for 200,000 rubles.

Transport routes that previously brought supplies through Skadovsk have stopped operating following drone attacks and the reported death of a driver. Some residents now travel on foot or by bicycle to villages about 20 kilometers away for food, while those seeking evacuation must travel farther to reach onward transport.

Kyiv’s efforts to negotiate a humanitarian evacuation corridor with Moscow have been largely unsuccessful, DW reported.