Sybiha reports hunger in Oleshky and calls for immediate safe evacuation

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andriy Sybiha has once again brought attention to the dire situation in Oleshky, a town in the Russia-occupied portion of the Kherson region. The international community must use all available resources to provide humanitarian aid and ensure the safe evacuation of those wishing to leave, Sybiha emphasized.

He described the people in temporarily occupied Oleshky as starving, with almost no food available. Reports indicate that civilians are forced to subsist on grass and weeds, while access to medicines, clean water, electricity, and medical care is dwindling. Children are also caught in these dire circumstances, Sybiha stated on X on Saturday.

Sybiha was clear that the suffering in Oleshky is directly caused by Russia's illegal occupation, and Russia bears full responsibility for the humanitarian disaster and its consequences, including the loss of innocent civilian lives. He stressed that the international community must employ every available tool to reach the people of Oleshky, deliver humanitarian assistance, and ensure the safe evacuation of those wishing to leave.

The UN, the ICRC, and other international actors must utilize their mandates and channels to secure immediate and unhindered humanitarian access, Sybiha stressed.

Sybiha expressed gratitude to the Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights, Michael O'Flaherty, for bringing international attention to the situation in Oleshky. However, he emphasized that this attention must be followed by action. People in Oleshky cannot survive on mere statements of concern. Access to humanitarian aid and safe evacuation must become a reality, as every day matters in this dire situation, Sybiha concluded.