A critical humanitarian situation has developed in the occupied city of Oleshky in the Kherson region: people are running out of food supplies, while some residents are forced to eat once a day and add edible weeds to their meals. Ukraine has launched large-scale drone drops of food, water and medicine, The Guardian reports, writes UNN.
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According to Ukrainian estimates, about 2,000 civilians, including approximately 50 children, remain in Oleshky and the surrounding villages. One resident told the publication that, due to the food shortage, her weight had dropped from 110 to 67 kg.
I have absolutely nothing to eat now. At first I was glad that I had lost some weight, but now I realize that I will die without proper food
Ukraine dropped about 4 tonnes of aid
According to the Kherson Regional Military Administration, during the largest operation of its kind, large drones delivered about 4 tonnes of food, water and medicine to 100 locations in the occupied city and nearby areas. At the same time, it is unknown what portion of the aid reached civilians. The Ukrainian side claims that Russian military personnel intercept some of the shipments.
Local residents say that they sometimes eat only once a day, preparing soup from zucchini grown near their homes and adding purslane, an edible weed. According to Tetiana Hasanenko, head of the Oleshky Military Administration, the city has no reliable electricity supply, ATMs are not working, and due to mining and the constant presence of drones, delivering food by land has become extremely dangerous.
Hasanenko called the conditions in Oleshky "hell" and said that in some places it is impossible to retrieve the bodies of those killed because of the constant threat of drone strikes. The Ukrainian authorities accuse russia of blocking evacuation and humanitarian aid. The Kremlin acknowledged that the situation in the city was "critical," but placed responsibility for the supply problems on the Ukrainian side.