by Olha Hembik | 2026-05-27

Forty-seven children. That is the number still trapped in Oleshky, a city on the left bank of the occupied Kherson region where Russian forces have created a blockade so total that residents recently celebrated obtaining a stick of butter, after standing in line for five hours.

Before Russia's full-scale invasion in 2022, 24,000 people lived in Oleshky. Today, roughly 2,000 remain. Across four occupied communities in the Kherson region -- Oleshky, Hola Prystan, Stara Zburivka and Nova Zburivka -- the population has dropped from 40,000 to approximately 6,000. Among those still there, around 200 are children. Most of the rest are people who cannot leave on their own.

A city eating its last stores

On May 6, Ukraine's Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) declared the humanitarian situation in several communities in the temporarily occupied part of the Kherson region critical. Russian forces are blocking the delivery of food, medicine and basic goods. Electricity and gas infrastructure has been destroyed. Civilians attempting to travel by car to buy supplies have become targets for Russian drone attacks.

Kyiv journalist Maria Semenchenko has relatives in occupied Oleshky. Since late December, she said, no food has been brought into the city at all. For months, residents survived on home-canned goods and whatever neighbors could share.

"Some hunted pheasants, while others died of starvation in their own homes," Semenchenko told Kontur.

She shared a photo of a loaf of Easter bread baked in Oleshky on April 12. The person who made it had recently obtained a bit of butter -- a five-hour wait that was, by current standards, considered good luck.

"Before that, this person had not eaten any dairy products, meat, eggs, vegetables or fruit for two months -- nothing but frozen potatoes," she said.

The "road of death"

Entering or leaving Oleshky means navigating a mined highway Russian soldiers have filmed and shared online. In one video, a man lies dead on the road shoulder with loaves of bread scattered around him. He had been trying to bring food into the city to sell.

"These are horrific images for anyone, but especially for the descendants of those who survived the Holodomor," Semenchenko said.

The blockade is deliberate, said military analyst and former spokesperson for the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Vladyslav Seleznov.

"This war crime demands an adequate and proper assessment from the international community," Seleznov told Kontur.

He said the goal of drone attacks on civilian vehicles is to intimidate the population and turn these territories into areas free of Ukrainians. The response, he argued, must go beyond statements -- it must include documenting crimes, protecting civilians, and holding those responsible accountable.

Healthcare collapse, rising deaths

In June 2023, Russian forces blew up the Kakhovka Dam, flooding much of Oleshky and destroying what remained of its infrastructure.

Natalia Zheleznyak (a pseudonym used for security reasons) fled occupied Hola Prystan in 2025 after her home was bombed. She and her daughter spent two months traveling through Crimea, Russia, Belarus and Poland before reaching Germany, with help from the volunteer organization Rubikus Help UA.

Based on what her relatives still in Hola Prystan tell her, conditions have only worsened.

"There is no healthcare; the Russians hauled away all the valuable hospital equipment back in 2022. People are treated in small outpatient clinics; they used to travel to see doctors in Skadovsk or Crimea. Mortality rates have risen dramatically. It is especially difficult for diabetics and those with cardiovascular diseases," Zheleznyak told Kontur.

Residents are under constant surveillance, she said: "They are disenfranchised and helpless before war criminals."

Ukraine's Parliamentary Commissioner for Human Rights Dmytro Lubinets has been tracking conditions across the occupied communities. He cited aerial drone footage of Oleshky filmed by the 34th Separate Marine Brigade showing partially destroyed apartment buildings and empty, ruined streets.

"Every day we see the consequences of Russian aggression — ruined cities, destroyed infrastructure, and the death and suffering of civilians, including children," Lubinets wrote on his Telegram channel.

Russia is shelling the city while deliberately destroying civilian infrastructure, he said, then trying to blame Ukraine. He called this a "cynical and well-practiced information tactic." Full responsibility for the humanitarian catastrophe, he said, lies with the Russian Federation.

Lubinets said the International Committee of the Red Cross has signaled readiness to help organize the departure of Ukrainian civilians from the occupied territory. Safe evacuation routes are being worked out.