Thousands of Ukrainians starving to death in city cut off by Putin – only escape is to walk along ‘road of doom’ booby-trapped with mines

Thousands of Ukrainians are starving to death in a frontline city which has been cut off by Vladimir Putin.

All roads leading away from the Russian-occupied city of Oleshky in southern Ukraine have been littered with mines by Russian soldiers, trapping 2,000 people inside.

Constant Russian drone attacks and artillery shelling have made it impossible to deliver essential food and medicine supplies, mortally endangering the remaining population which includes around 50 children. 

In desperation, residents are attempting to flee via the ‘Death Road’ to the southern city of Skadovsk. 

But the 62-mile route is life-threatening: the road is full of mines and Russian drones target anything that moves. 

‘These people need to be saved,’ Dmytro Lubinets, Ukraine’s human rights ombudsman, said on September 16, adding that residents are desperate to escape ‘from this hell’.

Those who die are no longer buried, because even the mortuary has been bombed. 

Bodies lie in cellars or on the streets, where, according to witnesses, they are being gnawed at by dogs. 

The city in the Kherson Oblast used to have a prewar population of about 24,000.

This spring, amid a catastrophic humanitarian situation, volunteers were still able to evacuate civilians from the city despite the risks.

But now, volunteers say even those evacuation efforts are too dangerous, leaving Ukrainian civilians trapped in the occupied city, facing imminent starvation.

The Russian military continues to use towns and villages on the eastern bank of the Dnipro River in Kherson Oblast to launch attacks across the river, including on Kherson, which the Ukrainian army liberated in November 2022. 

Oleshky is an occupied frontline city on the eastern bank, where civilians live amid Putin’s soldiers and attacks from both Ukrainian and Russian forces. 

‘People are driven to despair and are simply walking along mined roads (to escape),’ an Oleshky resident – whose identity is being withheld for security reasons – told the Kyiv Independent. 

The starvation is so extreme that residents are eating grass and searching in destroyed cellars for anything edible.

Meanwhile, victims of drone attacks may only be buried by the Russian occupier, after an autopsy in another occupied city. 

Kyiv had previously prepared a humanitarian evacuation mission for Oleshky and approved a list of civilians who needed to leave, according to Lubinets. 

The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) had also expressed readiness to be involved, while Ukrainian forces had been preparing to ensure a ceasefire during the operation.

But the Kremlin has not confirmed its readiness to proceed, Lubinets said, causing the humanitarian crisis to only deepen.

Tetiana Hasanenko, exiled head of the Ukrainian Oleshky City Military Administration, said ‘Russia remains silent’ about the situation.

At first, Moscow pretended not to notice the disaster and tried to portray Oleshky as a functioning city, even staging visits and taking photographs there this spring.

But as the situation deteriorated to breaking point, those performative visits have come to a halt.

‘By New Year’s, there were already shortages of eggs, and we barely managed to buy any apples. Then we didn’t see any of that stuff again until spring. When we did, it was at astronomical prices,’ the anonymous resident said. 

‘Suddenly, bread deliveries stopped,’ they added. ‘I’m having tea with honey. And that’s all.’

According to Hasanenko, the last successful food delivery to Oleshky was on May 26.

‘There is absolutely no meat, flour, oil, butter, ready-made bread, and other basic products in the city,’ she said. 

Some of the surviving residents have posted photographs online of bread preserved in jars.

During an attempt to deliver supplies into the city on June 2, Russian drones attacked vehicles bringing food, killing two drivers and injuring others.

On September 1, Kremlin forces prevented another attempt to deliver essential supplies when they attacked five vehicles with drones.

Hasanenko described how desperate civilians are trying to exchange food with one another, but the Oleshky resident told the Kyiv Independent that ‘there’s absolutely nothing to buy, and there’s not even the option of bartering’.

Ukraine’s Holodomor Museum, established to commemorate the memory of the four million Ukrainians starved to death by Joseph Stalin from 1932-1933, issued a statement on September 16 about Oleshky.

The statement characterised the ‘famine’ as ‘among the most severe problems’ in Oleshky and the surrounding region.

‘We are convinced that silence around a mass humanitarian crisis is unacceptable, and we call on the international community not to ignore the situation in Oleshky,’ it said.

The local hospital is deprived of basic medical supplies, electricity, and running water, and is barely able to operate.

Only four doctors, all elderly former hospital staff, continue to work there.

Without equipment and medicine, the only thing they can do is ‘stop the bleeding’, Hasanenko said.

Since Russia destroyed the nearby Kakhovka Dam in 2023, the hospital has had to depend on generators for electricity.

But with time, fuel supplies have also become increasingly difficult to obtain.

Ambulances have not been operating in the city for years because Moscow’s drone campaign has made it too dangerous for the vehicles to travel freely.

The last time people were evacuated from Oleshky was May 26, and nobody has entered the city since.

In recent weeks, some residents have started fleeing the city to the neighbouring village of Radensk, alone or in pairs, on roads littered with mines.

‘They risk being blown up by a land mine or struck by a drone, but they go anyway, because staying in Oleshky is even worse for them,’ Lubinets said.

The walk takes five to six hours under the constant threat of Russian drones, according to Stefan Vorontsov, a volunteer coordinator with the Humanity NGO, which helps evacuate civilians from occupied territories.

‘Four or five months ago, it was still possible to leave by car. Now the only option is to walk,’ he said.

Once people reach Radensk, volunteers are able to collect them and help them travel further, he added.

About a week ago, volunteers helped a family leave the area to reach safety.

‘Some are leaving, while others have to return (after picking up supplies) because they have children or grandchildren at home, or relatives with limited mobility,’ the Oleshky resident said.

‘I don’t even remember what it’s like to have cars driving on the roads anymore,’ they added.

Civilians are increasingly worried about how they will survive the winter without regular food deliveries, medicine, electricity, or reliable transport.

‘People’s moods are very panicked and depressed,’ Hasanenko said.

‘They understand that the summer has passed and no evacuation has been organised.’

It is not just Oleshky which is facing disaster.

On September 16, Lubinets gave a broader estimate that around 6,000 people may remain in Oleshky and the surrounding area, including about 200 children. 

His office said it had identified 358 people who urgently need assistance to leave safely.