'Like a horror movie': Ukraine's Oleshky faces 'catastrophe' under Russian occupation

One Ukrainian official told ABC News that Oleshky has become "hell on earth."

KYIV and LONDON -- Editor's note: This story contains graphic descriptions of wartime injuries and fatalities.

The southern Ukrainian city of Oleshky -- under Russian occupation since 2022 -- has become "hell on earth," local officials and humanitarian workers told ABC News, as thousands of remaining residents face starvation and hundreds flee through a war zone littered with mines and bodies.

Oleshky is located close to the eastern bank of the Dnipro River, which since Ukraine's liberation of the city of Kherson in the fall of 2022 has formed the frontline between Ukrainian and Russian forces in the southern theater.

Recent weeks have seen voices from the city and its surrounding rural communities emerge anew as Ukrainian officials and humanitarian organizations seek to bring attention to the deteriorating situation on the Dnipro's left bank, in view of the Ukrainian forces holding their positions only a few miles away along the right bank.

Tetiana Hasanenko, a Ukrainian official serving from the western side of the Dnipro as the head of the Oleshky Military Administration, told ABC News that the area's prewar population of around 40,000 people has fallen to as low as 6,000, with only around 2,000 in Oleshky city.

A damaged church can be seen in occupied Oleshky on the eastern side of the Dnipro River, on Nov. 13, 2022 from Kherson, Ukraine.Global Images Ukraine via Getty Related'The basement saved me': Frontline Ukrainian city under fire amid US peace pushThose who remain, she said, face rapidly deteriorating living conditions and a Russian occupation authority with little apparent interest in alleviating them. "We are not talking about them surviving the winter," Hasanenko said.

Messages sent by residents in Oleshky and shared with ABC News tell of careful rationing of remaining food supplies, a chronic shortage of medication and having to move from one abandoned house to the next to escape drone attacks and marauding Russian troops.

"The blockade is complete," said one message. "Endless drones, fires. Like a horror movie."

Kseniia Arkhipova, a volunteer based on the Ukrainian-controlled side of the river who says she helps coordinate those hoping to flee, told ABC News that a recent collapse of food supplies prompted a new wave of evacuees.

A letter-writing campaign in the spring created enough attention, Arkhipova said, to push occupation forces to demine some of the local roads and allow supplies to reach Oleshky, where residents had been surviving thanks in part to produce grown in their own gardens.

Prices for basic goods were sky-high, and few people even had money to buy things with, she said. But they survived the summer.

On Sept. 1, though, a food-supply convoy heading to the city was attacked. Russian officials blamed the Ukrainian armed forces for the attack, while Kyiv blamed Moscow's troops.

"They were blown up. And then they were shot," Arkhipova said of the incident. "Then the drones flew in and attacked so that the drivers remained alive, just hit the motors so that the oil leaked out. Drivers then walked back by foot for 100 kilometers."

After that, she said, more locals began to leave the only way they could -- on foot. "Because there is simply nothing to eat. While there was something to eat, people just stayed in their homes," Arkhipova said.

A man holds a placard calling for aid to occupied Oleshky outside Kyiv City Hall, on Sept. 20, 2026.Sergei Supinsky/AFP via Getty ImagesRelated'The damage is enormous': Ukraine grapples with record-breaking Russian missile strikesTo escape, residents must first reach the village of Radensk, some 14 miles east of Oleshky deeper into Russian-held territory, Arkhipova said. Hasanenko described the route as the "road of death," citing the mines and drones that cover the entire area.

In Radensk, those fleeing may be able to get food and a night's accommodation. The roads in that area are still mined and dangerous, Arkhipova added, but those fleeing may be able to catch a lift in a local's car or tractor to get further into occupied Kherson and closer to the Black Sea coast, from where they may be able to arrange -- usually at high cost -- a circuitous route to Ukrainian-held territory, often through Belarus.

Some are even helped by Russian volunteers, Arkhipova said, who buy them train tickets and accompany them on their route.

It can cost as much as $500 per person to flee, the money going toward the costs of food, accommodation and payment for whatever driver is willing to take them, Arkhipova said, adding that she has so far helped 47 people out.

But those fleeing face myriad dangers from the very start of their journey -- mines, FPV drones and Russian checkpoints among them. Those walking the road to Radensk "follow each other step by step" to dodge mines, Arkhipova said.

Many have already lost their identity documents, whether in the flames of war or in the devastating flooding that swamped the Kherson region after Russian forces blew up the Kakhovka dam in June 2023. Officials in Moscow and occupied Ukraine denied Russia's responsibility for the incident, though many experts said Russian troops were most likely responsible.

Those stopped at Russian checkpoints face interrogation and possible detention. "They interrogated a girl for four hours," Arkhipova said of one evacuee. "She said, 'I don't have my passport, everything burned down. There was an attack on the house.' They said, 'No, you are a spy.'"

Maxar satellite imagery shows flooded homes in Oleshky, Ukraine, on June 7, 2023.Maxar/DigitalGlobe/Getty ImagesRelatedNATO jets scrambled in Poland, Romania as Russia strikes Ukraine'Corpses are lying on the street'While fierce combat has been ongoing along the banks of the Dnipro for years, Arkhipova said there is little organization behind the Russian lines.

"There's no leadership there," she said. "There are only [Russian] soldiers who openly say they don't care, 'We came here to earn money.'"

Russian forces reach the area through village roads, ever wary of Ukrainian drones and artillery. They bring in ammunition and weapons, using them to attack the Ukrainian-held city of Kherson on the right bank of the river, according to Ukrainian military officials.

"They don't let people go on these village roads that are not mined," Arkhipova said, for fear of residents seeing "where the trenches are, where the ammunition, cannons, self-propelled artillery mounts and everything else are." Anyone suspected of being in contact with Ukrainian authorities or armed forces faces immediate execution, Ukrainian officials say.

When the Russians come to the occupied settlements, Arkhipova added, they steal food and evict people from their homes -- particularly homes that have electricity, solar panels or a generator. "They kick the old people out," she said.

"They live there, exist for a while. They move around the city by foot, and Ukrainian drones are chasing them," she added of the Russian troops. "Then their corpses are lying on the street. These corpses are eaten by dogs."

Women walk along a street while a Russian drone lies on the ground in the foreground on June 3, 2026 in Kherson, Ukraine.Global Images Ukraine via Getty RelatedABC News Exclusive: David Muir one-on-one with French President Emmanuel MacronEven Oleshky's hospital, a last lifeline for those still living there, "is on its last breath," Arkhipova said. "If the hospital closes, the city will die. There is no fuel in the hospital. There is no medicine." Those still staffing the facility do what they can, she added, "but it only prolongs the agony" of those they treat.

Hasanenko painted an apocalyptic picture of what remains of the city. "People lie on the road, rot, unburied. More than 100 corpses lie in the basement of the hospital today -- a hospital that has had no electricity for four years. And imagine what kind of stench is there from the hospital, in the city and around."

All of occupied Kherson remains an active war zone. For the Ukrainian military, responsibility for the Oleshky area falls to the 30th Marine Corps.

Its spokesperson, Pavlo Drogal, told ABC News that the unit's drones carefully track developments on the left bank. "There is a huge deficit of drinking water, electricity, food products," he said. "We observe this picture every day ... The situation from the drone looks really depressing."

Ukrainian drone operators track Russian troops operating in the area, Drogal said, and see them looting homes, sheltering in civilian areas, wearing civilian clothes and masking military vehicles in civilian colors.

Drogal said Ukrainian units do not engage in remote mining of the logistical routes or any other areas on the occupied left bank. "The enemy conducts mining there," he said. "We do not attack our own people."

A Ukrainian law enforcement officer from a mobile fire group in camouflage holds a weapon during a drone interception operation on June 3, 2026 in Kherson, Ukraine.Global Images Ukraine via Getty RelatedRussia's escalating strikes in Ukraine increasingly spilling into NATO, Romania says"Does the enemy provoke? Yes. Do they fire on humanitarian transports? Yes. Do they allow humanitarian transports with humanitarian aid to Oleshky? No, they do not allow. We observe this all," he said.

As for the danger of collateral damage, Drogal responded, "We make our strikes, knowing exactly why we make these strikes. We strike only at representatives of the Russian occupation troops."

This week, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha raised the situation in Oleshky at the United Nations General Assembly high-level week in New York. 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 UNGA. "They are starving them to death."

Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov this month acknowledged the "critical situation" in Oleshky but accused Ukrainian forces of blocking humanitarian supplies intended for its residents.

Hasanenko and other Ukrainian officials have been trying to rally attention and action for several months, she said. Oleksandr Tolokonnikov -- the deputy head of the Kherson Regional Military Administration -- told ABC News earlier this month that the city has become "hell on earth."

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha (C) speaks during a Security Council meeting at the 81st session of the United Nations General Assembly at UN headquarters in New York City, on Sept. 23, 2026.Stefan Jeremiah/AP PhotoRelatedUkraine's deep strikes mean 'significant change' for war, former Russian PM says"People in Oleshky are dying almost every day for lack of food, medical care, heart attacks and Russian shelling," Tolokonnikov added, also accusing Russian forces of using locals as "target practice" for drones, as Moscow's forces have been documented doing on the Ukrainian-held Kherson.

Some 300 people are waiting to evacuate, Arkhipova said, with 47 having already left in September. Any effort to facilitate a relief of the city demands the demining of the roads, the pausing of all shelling between the combatants and a convoy of humanitarian buses to take hundreds of people at once, she added.

But Arkhipova said she has little hope of a breakthrough. "I don't care. They are all useless," she said of officials, high-level international bodies and NGOs agitating on Oleshky's behalf. During previous humanitarian visits, she recalled, "They only spend my time and reassure people. They don't do anything else."

Even in the case of relief, some Oleshky residents likely will not leave, Arkhipova said. "They are ready to live and die in their homes. That's what they tell me: 'I'm not going anywhere. This is my home. Why should I leave my home?'"