Ludmilla clutches her phone on the rooftop of a fire-damaged house, describing a city slowly suffocating under the weight of war. Oleshky, a frontline city in southern Ukraine, has been largely cut off from fresh food and medicine supplies for months, trapping its remaining 2,000 residents in what residents call an impossible choice: stay and starve, or risk their lives fleeing along a heavily mined road dubbed “The Road of Death.” Since Russia’s full-scale invasion, the city has been imprisoned by geography and conflict—cut off by a destroyed river crossing to the north and dangerous, impassable roads inland. As Ukrainian forces hold positions just across the Dnipro river near the recaptured city of Kherson, civilians caught between the opposing armies face a deepening humanitarian crisis, with Ukraine’s human rights commissioner warning of catastrophic conditions.
A Town Cut Off From Civilisation
Oleshky’s seclusion is both geographical and total. The city sits on the east bank of the Dnipro river, with all bridges to the north damaged or rendered unusable. To the southern and western areas, roads inland are either unsafe or wholly obstructed. This geographical predicament has been made infinitely worse by the persistent fighting. Russian forces control the city itself, whilst Ukrainian troops are positioned on the far riverbank near Kherson, which they recovered in November 2022. Trapped between two forces, Oleshky has become a abandoned pocket of territory where regular supply lines have effectively ceased to exist.
The effects for ordinary residents have been devastating. For extended periods, food and medical supplies have been largely inaccessible, forcing residents to forage through deserted buildings and subsist on irregular supplies from volunteers and aid organisations. Canned foods and pasta have emerged as the staple diet for those who remain. Prices for even these basic supplies have risen sharply, placing them inaccessible to many. The situation deteriorated considerably when winter arrived, when heavy snowfall concealed the extensive minefield encircling potential routes out, intensifying the sense of helplessness. Ukraine’s human rights commissioner has formally warned of a humanitarian catastrophe occurring inside the city.
- Dnipro river severs northern escape routes with destroyed bridges
- Russian occupation holds the city; Ukrainian forces hold opposite riverbank
- Supply deliveries virtually unavailable; residents forage vacant properties for sustenance
- Winter snowfall concealed mines; the situation stays perilous despite spring melting
The Precarious Choice: Stay or Flee
For the roughly 2,000 civilians who remain in Oleshky, the decision to depart is not a straightforward one. To stay means facing deteriorating conditions, severe malnutrition, and the constant threat of shelling and drone attacks. Yet leaving involves its own terrifying calculus. Those who try to depart must traverse what residents have called “The Road of Death” – a road so densely mined that each passage becomes a gamble with life itself. People describe the mental anguish of this choice: remaining in a decaying city or risking death on the escape routes.
Some families have gathered the strength to attempt escape despite the odds. Volodymyr, a man aged around 50, finally determined that his family could not continue to bear the mental and physical strain of existence in a conflict zone. After observing a neighbour’s body being removed following a bombardment, and enduring continuous drone monitoring, he made the difficult determination to depart. His narrative of the evacuation process reveals the horror that awaits those courageous enough to attempt: the full length of the road is strewn with charred wreckage, some containing the remains of those who failed to survive the attempt.
Exit Paths Fraught With Danger
The main escape route extends south-west along the Dnipro river towards Hola Prystan’, but this path is treacherous. Widespread mine placement has made the roads dangerous and unpredictable. During winter, when snow blanketed the landscape, identifying danger points became nearly impossible, forcing many to postpone their attempts. Even now, as the snow has thawed, residents and volunteers remain profoundly anxious that the mines remain hidden below ground, waiting to claim unsuspecting travellers.
Despite these alarming conditions, some evacuations have succeeded, typically coordinated by voluntary groups utilising ambulances and other vehicles. Those who have completed the journey speak of offering prayers through the drive, hoping to avoid the buried mines. The burnt-out shells of cars flanking the passage serve as sobering testament of prior journeys. Yet for some families, the dangers of travel has proved less daunting than the certainty of gradual decline within Oleshky’s cut-off boundaries.
- Road running south-west towards Hola Prystan’ extensively mined; winter snow concealed danger
- Evacuations arranged by volunteers using ambulances; survivors report constant prayer
- Highway covered with burnt-out vehicles; some evacuations have been successful despite risks
Indicators of Devastation on the Ground
Satellite imagery and eyewitness accounts paint a bleak picture of Oleshky’s deterioration under months of isolation and conflict. The city, formerly inhabited by tens of thousands, now shelters roughly 2,000 residents who have decided to stay despite the dire circumstances. Images acquired by the BBC capture busy settings in city squares where elderly residents wait for fresh supplies delivered by aid organisations—a striking example of the humanitarian strain. The photographic record corroborates residents’ descriptions of deterioration and hardship, with empty buildings providing a grim backdrop to daily survival efforts.
| Location | Observations |
|---|---|
| City squares | Crowds of elderly residents gathering for aid deliveries; fresh supplies rare and expensive |
| Highway to Hola Prystan’ | Littered with burnt-out vehicles; some cars burned with occupants still inside |
| Residential areas | Fire-damaged houses; abandoned homes stripped for food and resources by neighbours |
| Rooftops and vantage points | Used by residents for phone communication; surveillance by opposing drone activity |
The structural devastation visible across Oleshky reflects not merely the marks of warfare but the combined burden of sustained disconnection. Residents have relied on searching through vacant buildings for sustenance, whilst basic staples like pasta and tinned goods have become food essentials. The humanitarian commissioner’s warning of an unfolding catastrophe emphasises institutional anxiety about the situation declining as winter approaches again and delivery lines continue unstable.
Responsibility and Humanitarian Concerns
Ukraine’s commissioner for human rights has issued stark warnings about the deepening humanitarian crisis unfolding in Oleshky, drawing international attention to conditions that officials argue amount to a deliberate blockade. The city’s isolation—whether through military requirement or tactical consideration—has produced circumstances where tens of thousands of residents face impossible choices: remain in a declining urban area with diminishing resources, or risk death attempting escape. Residents and aid workers alike point to the convergence of mined roads, destroyed bridges, and active combat zones as producing a catastrophic situation of entrapment. The commissioner’s intervention indicates heightened concern among Ukrainian officials about the sustainability of civilian life in this forgotten corner of the frontline.
Local volunteers and relief organisations have become lifelines for Oleshky’s remaining population, coordinating dangerous supply runs and organised retreats despite severe difficulties. Yet their work, however heroic, cannot address the core issue: a city of 2,000 people surviving on canned food and scavenged supplies whilst amid active warfare. Ludmilla’s testimony from her burnt-out roof encapsulates the despair—people “trying their best to survive” in a place where survival itself feels progressively uncertain. The humanitarian toll extends further than hunger and medical shortages to extend to emotional devastation, as residents observe devastation and loss on a degree that challenges our capacity to endure.
International Reaction and Accountability
The plight of Oleshky residents highlights pressing questions about worldwide humanitarian duties and the obligation of conflicting sides to protect civilians. Russia’s sustained control of the city and Ukrainian armed activities across the Dnipro river both contribute to the perilous situation, yet accountability mechanisms are unclear. International organisations overseeing the conflict have catalogued the situation, but translating documentation into meaningful intervention has become difficult given the ongoing military deadlock. The lack of a clear pathway to either sustained humanitarian access or removal of civilians underscores the shortcomings of global pressure in areas of active warfare.
Calls for humanitarian corridors and demilitarized withdrawal corridors have taken on greater importance as circumstances decline. Aid workers maintain that both Russian and Ukrainian forces have responsibilities according to international conventions to facilitate civilian passage and shield innocent populations. Yet strategic military circumstances—the strategic importance of the Dnipro crossing, the threat of weaponized assistance routes—hinder practical execution. Without concrete agreements between opposing forces and worldwide safeguards, Oleshky’s residents remain caught in a void of legal protection and practical support, their survival dependent on the voluntary assistance of aid workers rather than the protection of international law.
The Remaining Few
Oleshky’s declining population reveals impossible choices. Of the city’s former residents, only approximately 2,000 people stay, maintaining their homes despite conditions that deteriorate by the day. Those who remain cite various reasons: elderly relatives too frail to risk the journey, strong ties to a community built over generations, or simply a overwhelming dread of what lies beyond the mined roads. For many, the known dangers of staying have felt comparatively safer to the unknown horrors of making an escape along the “Road of Death.”
Daily life in Oleshky has been cut back to its most basic elements. Residents forage through abandoned neighbouring homes for scraps, adding to their food intake with pasta and tinned goods when volunteers succeed in deliver supplies. The psychological toll is immense: witnessing shelling, hearing the relentless hum of aircraft overhead, and living under Russian occupation whilst Ukrainian forces position themselves just across the river. Yet despite these harrowing circumstances, the residents who remain show a stubborn resilience, maintaining hope that circumstances might eventually improve or that evacuation routes will become safer.
- Roughly 2,000 inhabitants remain in Oleshky, down substantially from pre-conflict population levels.
- Residents depend on gathered foodstuffs from empty properties and infrequent volunteer-coordinated supply runs.
- Older and disabled residents face particular barriers to evacuation due to health and mobility constraints.