Bodies Left Unburied, Stray Dogs Feeding on Corpses: Displaced Resident Reveals Life in Russian-Occupied Oleshky

Oleshky is a Ukrainian city on the left bank of the Dnipro River, a gem of the Kherson region just 9 kilometers (6 miles) from the regional capital. Unlike Kherson – a city clearly visible from Oleshky – it remains under the control of Russian occupation forces. Kerson and Oleshky in the map (Photo from DeepState OSINT group map) JOIN US ON TELEGRAMFollow our coverage of the war on the @Kyivpost_official. Once a quiet town surrounded by unique sandy landscapes and pine forests, filled with the rhythms of everyday life, it has now become a symbol of pain, loss, and the struggle to survive. Russian forces have turned it into a staging ground for attacks on the regional capital, prompting the Ukrainian military to begin cutting off Russian forces’ supply routes around Oleshky. Residents have been left trapped, unable to leave, with no chance of rescue, and with no food. A three-way evacuation operation in Oleshky began on Tuesday, Oct. 27. Although Ukrainians did not expect anything good from the initiative, which also involved the US, at least Russian forces are observing the ceasefire. We spoke with someone who witnessed firsthand how life in the city changed after Russian forces arrived. She managed to escape the occupation, but her relatives are still there. We are therefore withholding her name and have removed everything from her answers that could reveal where she lived, worked, or where she was at any given time, in order to prevent Russian occupation forces from harming her family. Other Topics of Interest Ukrainian Delegation Heads Toward Oleshky for Aid Mission The delegation’s departure follows mine-clearance work on aid routes under a humanitarian ceasefire scheduled to last until Nov. 1. The full interview is available in the Ukrainian-language version. Here, we publish its most important excerpts. This interview is an honest and painful account of life in a city under enemy occupation – a city that continues to await liberation without losing its dignity. Oleshky before the full-scale war Oleshky is officially classified as an urban-type settlement. It is a small town with a population of approximately 24,000, according to the latest census. But to me, it really was the best place imaginable. For such a small town, it had a fairly well-developed infrastructure. We had three large schools. The First School was a gymnasium. It received very good funding. And the nature was simply incredible. The combination of the Oleshky Sands, the Oleshky Desert, and the man-made forests still feel extraordinary to me. Most of the forests in our district were planted by people to stop the Oleshky Desert from spreading. When you walk through the forest, you see the trees growing in neat, straight rows. Our parents, grandparents, and great-grandparents all helped plant these forests. That, too, has always seemed remarkable to me. We had many lakes, rivers, and tributaries of the Dnipro, including the Chaika and Konka rivers. In other words, we had access to every kind of body of water. There was also a system of lakes in the Oleshky district known as the iodine lakes. People came there from all over Ukraine and spent the night in tents. The Russian occupation of the city When active hostilities began on Feb. 24, the fighting swept past us like a whirlwind. There were no major battles in the city before it was occupied. Russian troops drove through our town and went straight to Kherson. The fighting took place just outside the city, but it was not particularly intense. Only two military vehicles were destroyed. There were very few of our guys defending the city, and the Russians overwhelmed them in literally half an hour before moving on to Kherson. The fighting in Kherson was extremely fierce, and we did not even realize how our own city had been occupied. Everyone spoke Surzhyk, a mixture of Ukrainian and Russian, and we had to switch to Russian because the occupiers did not understand Surzhyk. The pressure was intense. People who had any connection to the fighting were taken away and held in basements. Some of our guys immediately joined the territorial defense forces. When they learned that the city had been occupied, they had to find ways to conceal their involvement because the Russians were taking everyone away to basements. Our local administration had left all its documents behind, so the Russian military learned the names and addresses of all the Anti-Terrorist Operation (ATO) veterans. They rounded them all up and shot them outside the city. We had to maintain neutrality to survive. Heroics were simply out of place at that point, at least for us. We did not have the strength to openly express our position, so we kept our heads down. But there were people among us who offered the Russians food and poisoned them. They came up with various plans. There were actually many such incidents. People risked their lives. The blockade of the city Things are much worse now than they were in 2022. There is almost no food left. The shops are closed and absolutely nothing is operating in the city except for one hospital. Food supplies stopped arriving at the end of May. Before that, people who lived in the city would bring supplies themselves from neighboring towns. People used to bring food when they could, but now all the roads have been mined, and there have been no deliveries since the end of May. Only ambulances were able to leave. The Russians would clear mines from the road for them and then mine it again. Ambulances brought in the wounded and carried food and some medical supplies to the hospital. Now even ambulance access in and out of the city has been completely blocked. People began to panic because winter is approaching, and they have no way of getting food. The situation attracted public attention, and people managed to appeal to the UN and the Red Cross. The road was cleared of mines for six days, then mined again. But residents were able to get food for themselves by traveling out on their own. There was a highway that had been cleared of mines, and a burned-out car stood every 100 meters (330 feet) along it. The road had been cleared, yes, but people had to drive past all those burned-out vehicles at their own risk. Locals call it the “highway of death.” People managed to buy food, but the road has now been mined again. There is no way to evacuate the wounded or remove the bodies of those killed, and a terrible stench hangs around the hospital. Some bodies have been lying there since February of this year. The situation is truly dire because the deaths need to be officially registered. But locals have now started burying people in their own yards or somewhere in parks. The morgue is not functioning, and its refrigeration system is not working, so the bodies are decomposing and the stench is unbearable. Dogs are another problem. There may be wounded people or bodies lying around the city. Dogs have eaten human flesh, and afterward began attacking people. When someone rides a bicycle, they take some food along to throw to the dogs. The dogs have tasted human flesh and now want to eat it. As a result, moving around the city has become dangerous in every respect. A lost home I now realize that the city we knew before the war will never exist again. It has been completely destroyed, and even if it is rebuilt, it will not be the same city. The people who lived there will not return either. Almost all the people I know are now abroad, and many of my acquaintances have left. None of them will return. I understand that it will be a completely different city, with different living conditions and a different future. It is incredibly painful. During the first years after I left, my heart was literally breaking. It broke from the pain and from being separated from my loved ones. But gradually, you get used to the circumstances you find yourself in. You come to terms with the situation as it unfolds. Now I accept it more calmly because I understand that the world is changing. When all my thoughts were focused on Oleshky and everything happening there, I could not develop professionally or work properly. All my energy went into worrying about what would happen to the city and to the people who remained there. It was extremely difficult. Now I have learned to approach it more calmly. I understand that what existed before 2022 will never return. But I still have hope that our land will be liberated. Our unbreakable spirit really does give us strength. I would simply like to see them again, that is all.