Ukraine calls for international humanitarian corridor to evacuate starving civilians from Russian-occupied Oleshky
Ukraine is urging the international community to establish a humanitarian corridor to evacuate up to 2,000 civilians, including nearly 50 children, from the Russian-occupied city of Oleshky, where famine has taken hold since March. The city, flooded after the 2023 Kakhovka dam destruction and heavily mined, has been cut off from food deliveries since mid-January, with only one truck arriving on May 4. Kyiv says a truce date from Moscow is needed to begin the evacuation, which would require supervision by the United Nations or the Red Cross.
Ukraine is calling on the international community to establish a humanitarian corridor to evacuate up to 2,000 civilians, including nearly 50 children, from the Russian-occupied city of Oleshky, where famine has taken hold since March, officials said.
Oleshky, which had 24,000 residents before Russia's full-scale invasion in 2022, has been under Russian occupation since 2022. The city was flooded after the destruction of the Kakhovka dam in 2023 and has been heavily mined. All access roads to Oleshky have been mined by the Russian army, and the Antonivka Road Bridge connecting Oleshky to Kherson was blown up by Russian forces in November 2022, severing the main link to Ukrainian-controlled territory.
"In Oleshky, people are dying because of landmines, direct strikes on their homes or shrapnel," Ksenia Archipova, a former resident who is helping evacuations, told DW. "The hospital is powered by generators, but there's practically no fuel. Complex operations, such as amputations after mine explosions, are impossible."
Food deliveries to Oleshky stopped from mid-January, leading to an effective famine beginning in March, according to Tetyana Hasanenko, head of the Oleshky Military Administration. A single food truck arrived on May 4, 2026, with no deliveries after that. "From March, there was effectively a famine in Oleshky, because almost no food was available from mid-January until February," Hasanenko told DW. "People have no electricity, they have to cook with open fires, fridges are not working."
The remaining residents are mostly pensioners and persons with limited mobility, including nearly 50 children. Ukraine's Commissioner for Human Rights Dmytro Lubinets described the situation as a "humanitarian disaster." "There isn't enough food, medicine and drinking water," he told DW.
Kyiv is urging the establishment of a humanitarian corridor under international supervision. "We are dealing with Russian war criminals," Hasanenko said. "A humanitarian corridor would only be possible under supervision of international missions — the United Nations, the Red Cross or other organizations."
The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) announced at the end of April 2026 it was ready to supply buses for evacuation, according to Lubinets. Ukrainian officials have coordinated technical details for evacuating Oleshky and other localities on the left bank of the Dnipro, where some 6,000 civilians, including 200 children, are waiting to leave. Kyiv is awaiting Moscow's confirmation of a date for a truce to begin the evacuation.
Ukraine's Foreign Ministry said in a statement: "We urge the international community to take immediate, concrete action to save our citizens in the occupied Kherson region." Kyiv plans to raise the situation with the United Nations and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe.
Some residents are evacuating independently. Archipova's group evacuates 7 to 12 people per week via Skadovsk and Russia to the Ukrainian-Belarusian border. "To get to them, we go ahead 100 meters at a time, checking the area for mines, before giving the all-clear to a vehicle," she said. However, only people with IDs can leave Oleshky on that route; those without documents are advised by Archipova to obtain Russian passports to enable them to flee, though the process requires three neighbors to verify their identity.