21 July 2026

Residents of occupied Oleshky described how they are surviving without food or medicine

(Oleshky in ruins. SCREENSHOT: Video from the 34th Marine Brigade)

A humanitarian crisis is unfolding in the occupied town of Oleshky in the Kherson region. Local residents have been living without electricity or water for years, suffering from a lack of food and medicine, while Russian soldiers, according to eyewitnesses, are confiscating food and even hunting dogs.

American journalist Zarina Zabriskie wrote about this on her Facebook page , sharing the testimony of a local resident. 

According to residents of the temporarily occupied town of Oleshky, the town has been without centralized electricity and water supply for several years. People are forced to draw water from wells.

One local resident said that Russian soldiers blew up the walls between apartments in a high-rise building to create an internal passageway allowing people to move between entrances without going outside. As a result, the building became uninhabitable, and its residents were left homeless.

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According to eyewitnesses, the food shortage has reached a critical level. For breakfast, six people share half a liter of goat’s milk diluted with water, and for lunch, they each get three hard-boiled eggs and two zucchini fritters. Sources say there is virtually no flour, grains, or other staple foods.

Locals also report that Russian troops are confiscating any food supplies they find in civilian homes. According to our sources, the occupiers themselves are facing food shortages. In particular, when residents planted potatoes, the military spotted them via a drone and subsequently seized the crop.

In addition, sources claim that Russian troops are hunting dogs and using them for food.

Furthermore, according to residents, there is a near-total lack of medicine in the city, which further exacerbates the humanitarian situation.

Recently, Ukraine called on the Vatican to help establish a humanitarian corridor for the evacuation of residents from the Russian-occupied towns of Oleshky and Hola Prystan on the left bank of the Kherson region.

Earlier, it was reported that in the temporarily occupied town of Oleshky,the exit forcivilians has been blocked for over a month. Food and medicine are not being delivered to the town, and due to constant shelling and drone attacks, the humanitarian situation continues to deteriorate.

Андрій Колісніченко

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