Video: Residents of the occupied town of Oleshky recounted the terrible famine and how they resorted to eating birds

Approximately 1,500–2,000 people remain in the occupied town of Oleshky in the Kherson region, including dozens of children. 

According to local residents, the last time food was delivered to the store was back in May. People are surviving on vegetables from their gardens and supplies they managed to stockpile earlier.

Alla, a local resident, says there is a catastrophic shortage of food, and food prices have become unaffordable.

“We ate only vegetables—tomatoes, cucumbers, zucchini. There was nothing else. If we were lucky and someone brought a bag with a kilogram of buckwheat or rice—that was a blessing! The hunger was terrible,” the woman said.

According to her, even the simplest foods are extremely expensive. For example, two kilograms of potatoes cost 420 rubles—about 210 hryvnias.

Alla also spoke about the violence she endured at the hands of Russian soldiers. She said that one of them held her and her husband hostage for 11 days, ate their chickens, and took food from their garden. The soldier threatened the couple with death and mentioned a grenade.

Other residents of the town also report searches, beatings, and gunfire in their homes. People are afraid to go outside and are trying to survive amid constant danger.

Those who dare to leave Oleshky are forced to walk more than 20 kilometers, avoiding mined areas and other dangers.

Source: Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty

Ukraine is coordinating with Russia on the final details of the evacuation of civilians from Oleshky—Lubinec.

Earlier, the Pope spoke by phone with Putin and called for a ceasefire in Oleshky.

The model currently being used in the area around the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant could be applied to the situation in Oleshky.