Russia Fails to Uphold Oleshky Evacuation Deal, Human Rights Commissioner Says

Russian authorities have failed to uphold previously agreed arrangements for a humanitarian mission to evacuate civilians from occupied Oleshky, where its residents remain without reliable access to drinking water, food or medicine.

The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) was prepared to take part in the evacuation within its mandate, while Ukrainian security and defense forces made arrangements for a ceasefire during the proposed operation.

“These people must be saved,” Dmytro Lubinets, Ukrainian Parliament Commissioner for Human Rights said in a statement on Wednesday, Sept. 16.

“The city has been turned into a death trap,” he continued.

Oleshky is located in Ukraine’s southern Kherson region on the left bank of the Dnipro River, about 5 km (3 miles) southeast of the city of Kherson, and it has been under Russian occupation since the early days of the full-scale invasion, launched in February 2022.

Civilians trapped in Oleshky

Lubinets said his office had received 176 appeals regarding the humanitarian situation in Oleshky, and had already verified at least 358 people who urgently need assistance to leave safely.

He estimated that more than 6,000 people – including 200 children – could still be in Oleshky and the surrounding district.

The figures could not be independently verified, particularly as Russian occupation authorities narrowly restrict access to information from the area.

Some of the residents, according to Lubinets, had begun trying to escape independently, through mined fields, because they saw no other way out.

“They see no other way to escape this hell,” he said, adding that “they risk stepping on mines or being hit by drones, yet they go because remaining in Oleshky is even worse for them.”

Beyond the mine fields, regular shelling and near-daily drone attacks have made travel out of the town extremely dangerous.

Food and medicine shortages

Residents of Oleshky have gone for months without food or medicine deliveries, forcing some to barter for basic goods as the town becomes increasingly isolated.

Tetiana Hasanenko, head of the Oleshky City Military Administration, said on July 10 that no vehicles had entered or left the town since May 26.

The town’s only pharmacy, located at the local hospital, has reportedly run out of essential medications months ago, while power cuts and lack of fuel for generators have further complicated medical care.

The humanitarian crisis has been compounded by the inability to bury residents killed in ongoing barrage.

According to Hasanenko, the hospital morgue was destroyed by shelling, forcing bodies to be stored in a basement, while Russian occupation authorities also allegedly prohibit the burial of people killed in drone strikes as their bodies must first undergo forensic examinations in another occupied town.

Residents cannot access their bank accounts either, because cash withdrawals require leaving the town – which is nearly impossible.

Calls for humanitarian access

According to the UN Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine, international humanitarian law requires occupying powers to ensure the provision of medical supplies and food, as well as to facilitate humanitarian relief when local resources are insufficient.

As per the same report, at least 29 civilians were killed and 54 wounded in Oleshky and the nearby occupied town of Hola Prystan in 2026, with many of those casualties verified independently by the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights.

“Several months ago, I also informed a number of international organizations, including the UN and the ICRC headquarters in Geneva, about the critical situation in Oleshky,” Lubinets said.

“I called on international organizations to provide appropriate assistance to prevent mass deaths,” he added.

Ukrainian officials have continued to call on international organizations to help secure an evacuation corridor for the town and additional humanitarian access, but those efforts have so far produced no tangible results.