A Ukrainian town you’ve probably never heard of is quietly crushed between two armies and starting to go hungry. In Oleshky, a once bustling tourist town now stuck on the southern front line, around 2,000 civilians are stuck without food, medicine and a safe escape, reports the New York Times. The town is located across the Dnipro River from Ukrainian-held Kherson, with Russian forces firing from Oleshky and Ukrainian forces returning fire from across the water. Mines, constant drone strikes and destroyed roads have made it almost impossible to get supplies or organize evacuations.
THE TimesDrawing on messages from residents and Tetiana Hasanenko, the exiled town leader of Oleshky, details people boiling their last pots of soup, rummaging through ruined basements for remains, and risking injury or death as they flee on foot or by bike. “In the fall we will definitely die,” one resident recently wrote. “I’m already dying. I’m getting weaker every day.” The local hospital, meanwhile, is trying to operate without electricity, running water, or even basic medical supplies, according to the kyiv Independent.
“The only thing they can do is stop the bleeding. There are no drugs,” says Hasanenko. Ukraine accuses Russia of blocking aid, seizing food and using civilians as human shields, according to the Times. The Kremlin recognizes that there is a “real humanitarian catastrophe”, but it accuses Ukraine of preventing departures and blocking deliveries of food and water. Some of the city’s feline residents have had better luck: Ukrainska Pravda reports that six cats were recently flown out of the city in a cage and flown across the river to safety by a bomber drone. For a brutal look at how civilians are trapped in this war, the full Times piece here.
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