‼️ Residents of Russian-occupied Oleshky in Kherson region are trying to flee the city because of severe shortages of food, clean water, and medicine, despite the danger of mined roads. Dozens of people are leaving by bicycle, moped, or on foot.
There is no safe evacuation route and no transport available. People know there may be mines along the way, but staying in the city is dangerous too.
Civilians in occupied Oleshky have been left without basic necessities - food, clean water, and medicine. They are now facing an impossible choice: stay in the city without access to essentials, or try to escape and risk being killed by a mine.
A Ukrainian posted on Instagram that her mom has managed to escape from Oleshky, Kherson region.
Here is what that person wrote:
"A week ago, my 67-year-old mother made the decision to leave the blockaded city of Oleshky on foot.
All these years, she refused to leave because she loved that town—or rather, what was left of it.
Since 2022, she had been taking care of stray animals, sheltering nearly 30 dogs and cats. In recent months, she worried more about what they would eat than about feeding herself.
But the dogs and cats started disappearing right from the yard.
Because people have nothing to eat.
During the occupation, my mother:
Lost our apartment due to a direct hit.
Lost her husband's house to the flood caused by the destruction of the Kakhovka Hydroelectric Power Plant (and miraculously survived back then).
Lost my grandmother's second house to a drone strike a week and a half ago (she was inside and miraculously survived again).
Yet months of starvation (everything written about people surviving in Oleshky is an understatement) forced her to choose: fear or life.
She chose life and took the risk.
She walked more than 20 km on mined roads, where cars and people are constantly targeted by drones. Then, for a week, using various means, she made her way out of the occupied area and reached Kyiv today.
I still can't quite believe that she made it ❤️"
📹: fata_gorgo/Instagram