For months, essential food and medical supplies have been virtually non-existent in Oleshky, which lies on the Dnipro River separating Ukrainian forces from Russian occupiers.
asserted
which → lie → occupiers
The city has been left entirely without electricity, heating or running water.
asserted
city → leave → electricity
Exhaust routes are laden with landmines and destroyed vehicles, while hostile drones hover overhead.
asserted
drones → destroy → landmines
With the stranded population shrinking to under 2,000, one resident witnessed the front-line settlement plunge deeper into a severe humanitarian catastrophe.
asserted
settlement → strand → catastrophe
Realising the danger, she determined to flee using a route locally known as "the road of death."
asserted
she → realise → death
The 40-year-old former hairdresser walked for 20 kilometres (12 miles) along the partially mined route, terrified that "every step could have been my last," she said.
uncertain
she → walk → route
Prior to the conflict, Oleshky was home to nearly 24,000 people, but Moscow's forces seized the city on the very first day of their full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
asserted
forces → seize → 2022
Relentless shelling destroyed its buildings and vital infrastructure.
asserted
shelling → destroy → buildings
Devastation deepened in June 2023 when floodwaters submerged the area after the Kakhovka Dam breached following an explosion—which an Associated Press investigation concluded was likely carried out by the Russian army—costing hundreds of lives.
asserted
investigation → deepen → lives
Now, those who remain in the shattered front-line city face the threat of starvation or disease as another severe winter approaches, with no consensus reached on a safe humanitarian corridor.
asserted
consensus → remain → corridor
“There is nothing left in Oleshky,” said the woman, who fled in August and spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because she feared for her security.
asserted
she → be → security
Both sides blame each other for the catastrophe.
asserted
sides → blame → catastrophe
Russia says Ukraine deliberately blocks supplies and evacuations; Kyiv counters that Moscow is effectively holding civilians hostage.
asserted
Moscow → say → civilians
Ukraine has appealed repeatedly for a local ceasefire to organize evacuations.
asserted
Ukraine → appeal → evacuations
Russia, which as the occupying power is obligated by international law to ensure civilians under its control have what they need to survive, has made no commitment.
asserted
they → occupy → commitment
President Volodymyr Zelensky mentioned Oleshky’s suffering at the hands of Russia on 12 October at an international forum in Poland, saying the city had been “razed to the ground.”
Ukraine is "trying to help these people, but they are under occupation,” he said.
asserted
he → mention → occupation
“Unblock the city of Oleshky and bring our citizens back.”
In a phone call Friday with President Vladimir Putin, Pope Leo XIV urged a ceasefire to allow food and medicine deliveries to Oleshky and to safely evacuate civilians, the Vatican said.
asserted
Vatican → unblock → civilians
The Kremlin said Putin voiced support for the Vatican efforts to help protect the population and secure vital supplies, and voiced readiness to cooperate.
asserted
Putin → say → readiness
The morgue overflows with bodies
Remaining residents reportedly scrounge for food amid destroyed buildings, or try to grow vegetables in garden plots.
uncertain
residents → overflow → plots
Water is drawn from wells.
asserted
Water → draw → wells
Firewood is used for warmth.
asserted
Firewood → use → warmth
Bodies at the city morgue decompose with no electricity.
asserted
Bodies → decompose → electricity
Another 100 bodies fill the basement of Oleshky's hospital, said Tetiana Hasanenko, the exiled head of the city's Ukrainian military administration.
asserted
Hasanenko → fill → administration
The U.N. human rights office said the last regular food delivery by road was 26 May.
uncertain
delivery → say → road
Oleshky's Russian-installed officials said this month they delivered two tonnes of aid, although they admitted it was hardly enough.
asserted
it → instal → aid
The U.N. office said Oleshky's hospital lacks medicine and basic supplies, drone attacks prevent ambulances from reaching patients, and it's unsafe to take them elsewhere.
asserted
it → say → them
“It is impossible to live in Oleshky, there is no life left there,” said another resident who fled to Russian-held Mariupol and spoke on condition of anonymity because he feared for his security.
asserted
he → live → security
Even the Russian soldiers have moved deeper into the occupied part of the Kherson region, farther from the Dnipro, according to the former hairdresser.
uncertain
soldiers → move → hairdresser
The Moscow-appointed authorities seemed to have "given up on us a long time ago,” she said.
asserted
she → appoint → us
She considered herself lucky to have survived the journey from Oleshky to the village of Radensk, also occupied by Russia but farther from the front line and thus better off.
asserted
herself → consider → line
She said an acquaintance who tried to bring food into Oleshky was killed on the road when his car came under fire, adding that she saw a photo of him “covered in blood, with bread and chicken legs scattered around him.”
asserted
she → say → him
Hasanenko said the route from Oleshky to Radensk is known as “the road of death” because "corpses lie on this road and no one is taking them away."
asserted
one → say → them
She cited an explosion this month that killed four people and left an 86-year-old man badly wounded.
asserted
that → cite → man
Russian troops were driven out of the larger city of Kherson across the Dnipro in 2022 but mined the roads around Oleshky, said Lt. Yevhen Voronetskyi, a spokesman with Ukraine’s 34th Separate Marine Brigade.
asserted
Voronetskyi → drive → Brigade
Kyiv's drones also remotely mined forest paths used by Russian troops, he said.
asserted
he → mine → troops
Some evacuees who make it to Radensk try to return to Oleshky with food “because they have children waiting at home, or immobile elderly parents," Hasanenko said, saying at least 35 children remain there.
asserted
children → make → home
An evacuee helps others still trapped
Ksenia Arkhipova, who fled Oleshky in 2022 and now helps others leave, said nearby occupied towns and villages in a zone along the Dnipro face similar dire conditions and mined roads.
It takes six to eight hours to walk or cycle from Oleshky to Radensk, she said, because evacuees might be older and weakened by hunger, or they have to wait out attacks or carry their bikes to avoid the mines.
uncertain
they → help → mines
Travel is only possible in dry weather, Arkhipova said, and "I'm terrified at the thought of the coming winter, when many people in Oleshky will be simply doomed.
asserted
people → say → Oleshky
"
Some of them don't want to leave their homes or risk a dangerous journey, Voronetskyi said.
asserted
Voronetskyi → want → journey
An agreement on an evacuation remains elusive
Russia and Ukraine have discussed a possible temporary ceasefire and humanitarian corridor but reached no agreement, the UN human rights office said.
asserted
office → remain → agreement
…and 12 more, not listed.
The Aporia
