The phone message sent out of Russian-occupied Oleshky was grimly matter of fact: food for the 2,000 or so civilians still remaining in the city and its surrounding villages had finally run out.
asserted
food → send → city
“We’re in Oleshky [and] we can’t get out.
asserted
we → ’re → Oleshky
We’re going hungry …
asserted
We → go → ?
Right now, I’ve got absolutely nothing to eat,” read the message, from a woman in the besieged city, who was waiting to be evacuated by the occupying forces.
asserted
who → get → forces
Before the war, she weighed 110kg (17 stone); now she weighs just 67, she wrote.
asserted
she → weigh → 67
“At first I was glad [to lose some weight], but now I realise I’ll die without proper protein-rich food.
asserted
I → lose → food
It’s very hard.
asserted
It → ’ → ?
The house where we stayed last winter was also destroyed and burned down.
asserted
we → stay → ?
We’re still alive.”
asserted
We → ’re → ?
Oleshky, across Dnipro River from the southern city of Kherson, has become “a hell on earth”, according to Ukrainians familiar with conditions there.
uncertain
Oleshky → become → conditions
Accounts of the dire conditions in the city emerged as the Ukrainian foreign minister, Andrii Sybiha, raised the situation in Oleshky at the UN general assembly in New York.
asserted
minister → emerge → York
A “Save Oleshky” banner was lifted at a Ukraine-Hungary Nations League football match on Friday.
asserted
banner → save → Friday
In a statement published on Monday, Sybiha warned of a “humanitarian catastrophe” and called for an immediate evacuation, accusing Russia of standing as “the only obstacle”.
“Russia is deliberately making life there impossible,” Sybiha said in an address during the general assembly.
asserted
Sybiha → publish → assembly
“They are starving them to death.”
asserted
They → starve → death
The Kremlin spokesperson, Dmitry Peskov, this month acknowledged the “critical situation” in Oleshky but accused Ukrainian forces of blocking humanitarian supplies intended for its residents.
asserted
spokesperson → acknowledge → residents
Until May, food supplies were still getting through to residents of a city that had once been home to 24,000.
uncertain
that → get → 24,000
But since May, as the occupying Russian forces expanded minefields and drone cover, the trickle of supplies has entirely halted.
Compounding the issue for civilians is the fact that Ukraine’s highly successful summer drone campaign against Russian supply lines has also caused shortages for the invading forces’ frontline troops – who in turn steal what little food Ukrainian civilians have managed to save.
uncertain
civilians → occupy → food
In messages shared with the Guardian, residents said they were down to one meal a day: soup without potato, made with courgette grown in what once were the flower boxes of the city’s apartment houses, sometimes with the addition of foraged purslane, an edible weed.
asserted
what → share → purslane
“We’re running out of everything,” said a resident early in the summer.
asserted
resident → run → summer
And come autumn, we’ll definitely die.
asserted
we → come → ?
I’m already dying.
asserted
I → die → ?
I’m getting weaker by the day.”
asserted
I → get → day
On 1 September a food convoy heading to the city was attacked.
asserted
convoy → head → city
Moscow blamed the Ukrainian armed forces for the attack, while Kyiv blamed Russian troops.
asserted
Kyiv → blame → troops
Ukrainian officials say attempts to drop food by drones have done little to help: the supplies are seized by Russian soldiers and in at least one case the intended recipient was arrested.
asserted
recipient → say → case
According to Tetiana Hasanenko, a Ukrainian official serving from the western side of the Dnipro as the head of the Oleshky military administration, issues began in earnest late last year as access to the city from the Russian side for Ukrainian civilians became ever more difficult.
“The density of the minefields has become very high,” she told the Guardian.
uncertain
she → accord → Guardian
“From December onwards, food deliveries became much less frequent because vehicles were hitting mines and being targeted by drones.
asserted
vehicles → become → drones
By winter, supplying food had already become very difficult.
asserted
supplying → supply → food
Oleshky isn’t functioning.
asserted
Oleshky → function → ?
“People used to grow food in their vegetable plots before the war.
asserted
People → use → war
There was not only enough for themselves but they used to sell it to Crimea and Kherson City.
asserted
they → be → Crimea
Now they cannot even grow it for themselves.”
asserted
they → grow → themselves
Hasanenko described another reported incident where a 74-year-old man was digging out a cellar that had been flooded with mud after Russia blew up the Kakhovka dam in 2023, looking for stored food.
asserted
Russia → describe → food
Refusing to allow the soldiers into the cellar he was excavating, he was murdered by the soldiers.
asserted
he → refuse → soldiers
“Some people have been digging out these cellars looking for canned vegetables, pickled vegetables and canned meat that people were storing up for winter,” she said.
asserted
she → dig → winter
Despite the horrific conditions in the city, Ukrainian officials believe the occupying forces are dragging their feet with the evacuation of the remaining civilians in order to discourage a Ukrainian counterattack.
asserted
forces → believe → counterattack
“The Russians are afraid that an offensive [against Oleshky] will start from Kherson city and they are just keeping people, civilians, as human shields,” said Hasanenko.
asserted
Hasanenko → start → shields
“It’s an old city,” adds Hasanenko.
asserted
Hasanenko → ’ → ?
“It has existed for almost a thousand years – and in all this time, people never lived in such horrible conditions, in such a hell like they do now.
asserted
they → exist → hell
They’re just lying there because you cannot pick up the dead body.
asserted
you → lie → body
…and 5 more, not listed.
The Aporia
