Lubinec explained the difficulties involved in evacuating civilians from occupied Oleshky
Dmytro Lubinets, the Verkhovna Rada Commissioner for Human Rights, reported during a briefing that the humanitarian situation in the temporarily occupied town of Oleshky and the surrounding villages in the Kherson region has deteriorated. In the region, which is home to approximately 6,000 civilians (including children), there is an acute shortage of food, drinking water, and medicine.
The Russian side is blocking the civilian population from leaving and is preventing representatives of the International Committee of the Red Cross from entering. Although Ukraine has fulfilled all preparatory conditions and developed the necessary mechanisms, the final implementation of the agreements remains blocked by the occupiers.
According to Andriy Pasternak, head of the Joint Center for the Search and Release of Prisoners of War, Russia is stalling the process, in particular because it objects to the verification of every person planning to leave.
Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty reports on this.
As a reminder, in April 2026, after a two-week hiatus, only two vehicles carrying goods for sale were able to reach the temporarily occupied town of Oleshky in the Kherson region.
About 1,700 residents currently remain in the Russian-occupied town of Oleshky in the Kherson region, although the town’s population exceeded 24,000 before the start of the full-scale invasion. Among those who have not yet left are more than 40 children. At the same time, it is currently impossible to leave the city or enter it due to restrictions imposed by the occupying authorities.
