Russian-Occupied Oleshky: Ukrainians Face Starvation, Drones and Mines

Kyiv, Ukraine – On what would have been her 41st wedding anniversary, Vera Gulyaeva sat remembering her husband's life and death. In March, a Russian drone slammed into a line of people waiting to buy bread in the southern Ukrainian town of Oleshky, killing several and wounding Serhiy Gulyaev, 63, a retired driver.

The town in the Kherson region has been under occupation for more than four years. Its roughly 2,000 remaining residents have spent the past two and a half years without electricity, running water, gas or medical services.

The Gulyaevs met at a friend's wedding in 1985 and built a small house together. They did not want to leave even after their children fled to Kyiv-controlled territory. They had an orchid, a vegetable plot, five hens, a well and a generator powered by expensive fuel occasionally bought from middlemen.

"I almost never leave the house," Gulyaeva, 64, a retired primary school teacher, told Al Jazeera. "My husband sometimes went out to buy bread."

The attack on the bread line left him with deep wounds to his skull. She tried to get him to a hospital 80km away in the city of Skadovsk but failed when the ambulance hit a mine on the road. Days later, a second attempt succeeded – but Gulyaev died in hospital. She received his body, had it cremated and brought the ashes home.

She now lives in western Ukraine with her daughter-in-law and two grandchildren, while her son fights against Russian forces. Gulyaeva left behind all her photos of family, friends and neighbours – some of whom have since died.

"People have eaten all their food reserves. People are starving to death," Gulyaeva said of the food shortages gripping the town. After four decades teaching at the primary school she once attended as a child, she still cannot understand "how people can kill other people".

Some residents live on what they grow, store or find in abandoned flats and houses. Others try to reach the nearest working food shop in the village of Radensk, 20km away, to buy food. But some who set out never return.

One resident who left the town but remains in contact with some of those who stayed told Al Jazeera that people have been killed by Russian drones or mines. Bodies left in the open have been eaten by stray dogs. Four casualties were reported on Thursday alone. When they tried to reach Radensk, two people were killed and two wounded, brought back by wheelbarrow and bicycle.

"The choice Russia leaves civilians every day is: stay and starve, or leave and risk being blown up by a mine," Ukraine's Human Rights Commissioner Dmytro Lubinets wrote on Telegram on Saturday.

European officials say the situation in Oleshky proves Kyiv should not concede to Moscow's demands for territorial concessions. "When someone says: 'Why don't they just give up these territories?' – it sounds simple. Right? But in reality, this is about the people who will have to endure on those very lands," EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Kaja Kallas said on September 28.

Moscow, which denies targeting civilians throughout the war, acknowledges a humanitarian disaster but blames Kyiv. "There are indeed problems with the supply of food and medicine [because] the Kyiv regime really does everything to hinder these shipments," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on September 20. "Drones are always hovering overhead, killing people."

Pro-Russian figures in the occupied regions back these claims. "Anyone who wanted to leave has already left. No one is being held here," a pro-Russian woman who runs an anonymous Telegram channel about life in Oleshky wrote on September 28. She claimed "locals are afraid to appear on camera" because they have relatives on the Ukrainian side, and that "the elderly live under Ukrainian shelling but are too afraid to speak". These claims contrast sharply with what Ukrainian officials say.

'There is nothing left'

According to Tetiana Khasanenko, the mayor of Oleshky – who fled to Kyiv-controlled territory but remains in frequent contact with residents who stayed – most people in Oleshky eat only one meal a day. She described the remaining residents as human shields for Russia.

Some have found old dry pasta to get by. Some eat whatever they can grow beside their homes. And some have to eat purslane – a watery weed with almost no protein that can be eaten raw.

"No flour, no meat, no cooking oil, no sugar, no salt," Hasanenko told Al Jazeera. "There is nothing left."

According to her, Russian soldiers are a constant threat in a town where no civilian administration operates. They seize remaining houses at will and force residents to feed them and find them alcohol. "They are constantly high," Hasanenko alleged. "But they have weapons. They threaten."

Oleshky lies about 10km west of the Kherson regional capital, but Russia blew up the 1,400-metre bridge across the Dnipro – one of Europe's largest rivers – in November 2022 as it withdrew from the city.

Transporting food and medicine is dangerous and complicated. The last attempts to bring aid to Oleshky by car were stopped by mines and drones. Ukraine has managed to deliver a few tonnes of food by drone, but recovering the goods is complicated.

Most survivors have left war-damaged houses and apartment blocks for buildings that are relatively intact. And even when some manage to charge phones and contact the Ukrainian side, they "do not provide exact coordinates because they are afraid", Hasanenko said. "Because if there is an airdrop, the Russian soldiers will punish them."

Knowing about the daily suffering of those who stayed, those who escaped are tormented by guilt. "You cannot enjoy life when you know that something like this is happening in your country," Gulyaeva said. "This is a terrible tragedy."