Residents in the occupied town of Oleshky remain without food

The temporarily occupied town of Oleshky. Photo by Ombudsman Dmytro Lubinets

Local residents of the occupied town of Oleshky in the Kherson region are complaining about difficulties in accessing humanitarian aid delivered to the town as part of a humanitarian mission.

Tetyana Hasanenko, head of the Oleshky City Military Administration, reported this in a comment to «Ukrinform».

According to her, some local residents did not receive any aid at all, whilst the rest were given minimal food parcels, which will not even last a week.

«And those who managed to receive it say they were given a minimal food parcel, which isn’t enough for a person for a week. As you can imagine, we cannot verify what is actually happening there at the moment,» Tetiana noted.

In addition, Hasanenko reported the death of Kostiantyn Melnyk, the former headteacher of one of the schools in Oleshky. According to her, the man was killed in Oleshky by a Russian drone strike after the ceasefire had ended.

How residents of occupied Oleshky were evacuated

During a humanitarian operation, the Defence Forces evacuated 167 people from the right bank of the Kherson region. According to the General Staff, people were transported via mined and damaged roads.

The last plane carrying residents of occupied Oleshky arrived in Belarus on 31 October. From there, those who decided to return to Ukraine travelled to government-controlled territory and crossed the border in the Chernihiv region.

The oldest person evacuated was 94 years old, and the youngest was just over a year old. People also took their pets with them, including dogs, cats, a parrot and a raccoon.

It later emerged that a direct route from the occupied town of Oleshky to Kherson via the Dnipro River had not been considered, as this could have weakened Ukrainian defences. The military were categorically opposed to this option and warned against demining the area.

In addition, it was reported that a ceasefire lasting more than five days had allowed for the repatriation of the bodies of those killed in Oleshky. Among them were Ukrainian military personnel and civilians.