Fewer than 2,000 people remain trapped in the Russian-occupied front-line Ukrainian town of Oleshky without food deliveries since May 26, facing freezing winter conditions, severe medical shortages, and mined escape routes.
Across the Dnipro River from the liberated city of Kherson, the front-line town of Oleshky has slid into a deepening humanitarian crisis as residents endure months without regular food aid, electricity, or running water Food and medical supplies have been scarce for months in Oleshky. The last recorded food delivery into the Russian-occupied settlement arrived on May 26, 2026, leaving remaining civilians entirely cut off The last food delivery was on May 26.
The population, once numbering around 24,000 before Moscow’s forces captured it on the first day of the full-scale invasion in 2022, has dwindled to fewer than 2,000 residents Once a city of about 24,000. According to the Ukrainian Parliament Commissioner for Human Rights, Dmytro Lubinets, more than 6,000 people may remain across Oleshky and the surrounding area, including approximately 200 children More than 6,000 people may remain in Oleshky and the surrounding area.
The Dangerous Journey Along the Mined Road to Radensk
With local trade paralyzed and ATMs non-functional since the occupation began, desperate residents must walk or cycle to nearby Radensk, some 23 kilometers away, to find provisions Food can only be bought in Radensk. The primary overland route has earned the grim moniker the road of death
because it is heavily mined and littered with burned-out civilian vehicles Roads leading from town are mined and dotted with burned-out cars.
The route from Oleshky to Radensk is known as ‘the road of death’ because ‘corpses lie on this road and no one is taking them away.’
An anonymous resident who fled Oleshky in August, via The Associated Press
Lt. Yevhen Voronetskyi, a spokesman with Ukraine’s 34th Separate Marine Brigade, pointed out that Russian forces laid mines on the perimeter roadways around Oleshky following their 2022 pullback from Kherson’s right bank, having been pushed out of the larger Dnipro-adjacent city that same year. Attempted relief missions have proved fatal; an effort to bring food into Oleshky in June ended when a vehicle struck a landmine, killing two people An attempt to bring food into Oleshky in June ended in the deaths of two people.
Soaring Prices and Freezing Temperatures in Oleshky Apartments
For those who stay behind, basic survival requires ingenuity and barter. Tetiana Hasanenko, the exiled head of the Oleshky City Military Administration, disclosed that purchasing a strip of Citramon pills, a kilogram of salt, or a kilogram of sugar runs 1,000 roubles—approximately 10 euros—which represents a 20-fold markup compared to standard prices throughout the rest of Ukraine.
Prices for scarce black-market goods have climbed to exorbitant levels. Vitaly, an evacuee, described paying 5,000 rubles (about $60) for a kilogram of flour and 3,000 rubles (about $35) for a dozen eggs through personal connections A kilogram of flour cost 5,000 rubles.
As early frost sets in, temperatures inside unheated apartments drop sharply. One resident shared a message detailing indoor temperatures of -10°C, describing how they survived the night by rationing gas cylinders to heat a single sleeping room for 10 minutes every three hours The first frosts have set in. It’s -10°C today.
Evacuation Impasse and Failed Humanitarian Corridors
Efforts by international bodies and Ukrainian officials to establish safe humanitarian corridors have repeatedly stalled. Ukraine accuses Moscow of effectively holding civilians hostage Kyiv counters that Moscow is effectively holding civilians hostage, while Russia maintains that Ukrainian forces obstruct relief operations and evacuations Russia says Ukraine deliberately blocks supplies and evacuations.
Humanitarian workers warn that the window to save the remaining population is closing rapidly. Myroslava Kharchenko, a lawyer for the resettlement organization Save Ukraine, cautioned that residents remaining in the enclave face starvation The people who remain there will simply starve to death.