Thousands trapped without enough food, water or medicine — Lubinets

“What we heard from those who managed to return is that it has been a catastrophe there for a long time,” Lubinets said. “They don’t have basic necessities. Food has run out, there is no water, there is no medicine.”

Civilians are surviving partly because volunteer groups are still able to deliver limited amounts of food by drone, he said, but those supplies are nowhere near sufficient for everyone who remains in the area.

Lubinets described the situation in Oleshky as a humanitarian catastrophe and said civilians are dying amid shortages of essential supplies and continuing hostilities.

Ukraine’s Foreign Ministry has similarly accused Russia of deliberately creating a humanitarian disaster on the occupied left bank of Kherson Oblast by blocking deliveries of food and medicine and obstructing humanitarian missions and civilian evacuations.

Russia blocking evacuation effort — Lubinets

Lubinets said Ukraine had proposed arranging a ceasefire to allow civilians to be evacuated, but Russia had failed to implement the agreement.

Leaving independently is extremely dangerous because roads around Oleshky are heavily mined and civilians face the threat of drone attacks and shelling.

“I am convinced that this evacuation could be carried out in one day,” Lubinets said. “The Ukrainian side agreed to ensure that the arrangements were implemented.”

He said Ukrainian military representatives had also participated in the negotiations and that designated officials on both the Ukrainian and Russian sides were supposed to maintain direct contact to ensure a temporary ceasefire.

“I remain in constant contact with this person, and unfortunately, the Russians have not followed through on these arrangements,” Lubinets said.

On Sept. 16, Lubinets said earlier negotiations had produced a clear evacuation procedure and a verified list of 358 civilians in urgent need of assistance. Ukraine had also coordinated with its security and defense forces to observe a ceasefire during a possible humanitarian mission. Russia, however, had still not confirmed its readiness to proceed.

Some residents have consequently attempted to escape on foot across mined terrain, Lubinets said.

Around 6,000 civilians remain across Oleshky community

Lubinets estimated that more than 6,000 civilians, including around 200 children, could still remain in Oleshky and the surrounding area.

More detailed figures provided by Oleshky City Military Administration head Tetiana Hasanenko indicate that around 2,000 people currently remain in the city of Oleshky itself, while approximately 6,000 people, including 182 children, remain across the wider Oleshky community and surrounding settlements.

Before Russia’s full-scale invasion, Oleshky had a population of around 24,000, while the wider community had roughly 40,000 residents.

Five settlements in the community have since been completely destroyed and three others are about 80% destroyed, Hasanenko said.

She said no regular food supplies have reached Oleshky since late May. There have also been isolated reports of residents resorting to eating dogs because of the extreme food shortage.

Eleven people have reportedly managed to escape the city on foot through mined territory, in some cases walking more than 20 kilometers (12 miles) toward Radensk.

The All-Ukrainian Council of Churches and Religious Organizations has also described Oleshky as being under a humanitarian blockade and appealed to Pope Leo XIV, international religious organizations, UN member states and the International Committee of the Red Cross to help facilitate humanitarian access and evacuation.

Ukraine raises Oleshky crisis internationally

Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha said on Sept. 20 that Russia was “deliberately creating a humanitarian catastrophe” in occupied areas of Kherson Oblast, with Oleshky facing an especially critical situation.

He accused Russia of blocking food and medicine deliveries, preventing humanitarian missions from operating and obstructing civilian evacuations.

Ukraine brought the situation in Oleshky and other occupied communities in Kherson Oblast to international attention during the high-level week of the UN General Assembly in New York.

Lubinets criticized what he described as the inability of international organizations to secure access to civilians trapped in the area.

The situation has deteriorated sharply as Oleshky, located close to the front line on the occupied left bank of the Dnipro River, remains without reliable electricity, gas, drinking water or regular humanitarian supplies.