Ukrainian foreign minister calls for evacuation of Oleshky amid humanitarian crisis

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha said on X that the Russian-occupied town of Oleshky in the Kherson region is experiencing acute shortages of food and medical supplies, urging international organisations to facilitate the evacuation of its remaining residents. He noted that the local hospital has run out of medicine and that many bodies remain unburied because residents are prohibited from doing so.

"Families are surviving on garden vegetables, preserves and even snails," Sybiha wrote, adding that Ukraine has repeatedly requested safe evacuation routes and humanitarian access. Sybiha appealed to the United Nations, the International Committee of the Red Cross and other agencies to establish secure evacuation corridors and provide immediate aid. The Kremlin acknowledged in September that Oleshky faced critical food and medical shortages, saying Russian forces were working to address the problems. Ukrainian drones have twice delivered food and medicine to the town. According to Danielle Bell, head of the United Nations Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine, Oleshky’s pre-war population of about 24,000 has fallen to roughly 1,700, including 47 children. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy recently described the situation as a humanitarian disaster. Local prosecutors reported that Russian forces dropped aerial bombs on the city of Kherson across the Dnipro River, killing an ambulance driver and wounding 40 people.