Famine Under Russian Occupation: Food Supply Cutoff in Oleshky and Civilians' Minefield Crossings to Survive

According to a France 24 report, since May this year, food supplies to Oleshky, a town in southern Ukraine under Russian occupation, have been completely cut off. Local residents have been forced to walk or cycle for hours, crossing mine-laden roads, just to obtain a little food and drinking water.

Oleshky is adjacent to the city of Kherson and has been under Russian control since 2022, serving as a key node on the southern front of the war. The France 24 report primarily draws on testimony from former residents and displaced Ukrainian refugees — under conditions in which independent verification on occupied territory is nearly impossible, these escapees are attempting to get warnings of famine out to the outside world.

Under international humanitarian law, the occupying power bears direct responsibility for safeguarding the survival of civilians in occupied territory. When a supply line meant to deliver basic provisions is completely severed, when civilians can only choose to cross minefields for their next meal, this is no longer a logistical failure but a systemic abdication by the occupying authorities of their responsibility for civilian lives and basic needs. Testimony cited by France 24 indicates that food deliveries have "dried up" since May this year, and in the months since, residents have had to bear on their own the deadly risk of crossing minefields left behind by the war.

Displaced residents warn that the occupied town is slipping into famine — an allegation that currently relies primarily on the oral accounts of those who have fled, and the full scale of conditions on the ground is difficult to confirm independently.

How far the humanitarian situation in Oleshky has deteriorated and whether supply lines have been restored remain difficult to confirm independently at present. What can be confirmed is that in southern Ukraine under Russian occupation, residents are paying an ever-higher price for basic food and drinking water — and that price itself is often their lives.