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Russian Troops Seize Drone-Delivered Food in Oleshky
Confirmed
In Short: Russian troops in Oleshky, Kherson Oblast, seized food packages that Ukrainian forces had dropped by drone for local residents, according to Tetiana Hasanenko, head of the Oleshky City Military Administration, on 30 September.
Oleshky residents have been facing severe shortages of food, water, and electricity since the city came under Russian occupation in early 2022.
Ukrainian forces have been using drones to deliver food to residents since March, according to Oleksandr Prokudin, head of the Kherson Oblast Military Administration.
Prokudin said about 2,000 people, including nearly 50 children, remain in Oleshky, surviving without food, electricity, or water.
Russian forces shoot down drones carrying provisions and confiscate or resell the food, Prokudin said.
People who escaped Oleshky on foot through mined territory had lost 10–15 kg, Hasanenko said in a 29 September interview with Ukrinform.
In a 4 June interview with Ukrinform, Hasanenko said Russia had not organized an evacuation from Oleshky and that residents who left did so at their own risk.
The UN mission reported on 25 June that no food had been delivered to Oleshky between 26 May and 24 June, after months of limited deliveries by private suppliers.
Russian forces also question residents found with products that were not manufactured in Russia, treating possession of such goods as possible evidence of cooperation with the Ukrainian military.
According to Hasanenko, Russian forces detain Oleshky residents, take them 'into the basement,' and beat them for receiving humanitarian packages.
Ukraine's Foreign Ministry said that around 2,000 people, including nearly 50 children, remained in the occupied town with severely limited access to food, drinking water, electricity, and other basic services.
The humanitarian conditions described by Ukrainian officials are consistent with findings published by the UN Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine.
The mission reported in June that thousands of civilians were facing food shortages and inadequate access to medical assistance.
What this adds
Residents could be accused of co-operating with the Armed Forces of Ukraine if Russian personnel concluded that the products had arrived through Ukrainian drone deliveries.
The allegations cannot be independently verified from inside Russian-controlled Oleshky.
The southeastern part of Kherson Oblast has remained under Russian occupation since 2022, with residents facing deteriorating security, shortages of food and medical care, and restrictions on their ability to leave.
Background
Russian troops in Oleshky, Kherson Oblast, seized food packages that Ukrainian forces had dropped by drone for local residents, according to Tetiana Hasanenko, head of the Oleshky City Military Administration, on 30 September.
What's confirmed
- Russian troops have taken food packages that Ukrainian forces dropped for Oleshky residents, accusing those who receive them of cooperating with Ukraine, Tetiana Hasanenko, head of the Oleshky City Military Administration, told Ukrinform on 30 September.
- Recently, Ukrainian forces delivered about four tonnes of food by drone to 100 locations across the city, Prokudin said.
- The U.N. Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine said no food supplies had reached the occupied town between May 26 and June 24.
What's still developing
- " If it's food not made in Russia, [they ask]: 'Where did you get it?' And they say: if the Armed Forces drop food for you, it means you're cooperating with them," Hasanenko added.
- In Ukrainian wartime usage, being taken "to the basement" means being thrown behind bars by Russian forces.
- The Kyiv Independent Live in London: October 2 One person was killed and four others were injured by landmines in occupied Oleshky over the past day, while Russian forces confiscated food delivered by Ukrainian military drones and questioned residents found with non-Russian products, the local military administration head told the Kyiv Independent on Sept. 30.
- "These people left Oleshky at 6 a.m. and must have failed to spot something before stepping on a landmine. One woman suffered a back injury and injuries to her limbs. She was taken to the hospital on a bicycle. The others were transported in garden trolleys," Hasanenko said.
- Ukrainian forces had carried out food drops for residents several times this year, with the latest delivery totaling around four metric tons, Kherson Oblast Governor Oleksandr Prokudin said on Sept. 27.
- Some Oleshky residents confirmed they found the packages in messages sent to Oleshky evacuation volunteer Kseniia Arkhipova.
- "The occupiers are detaining residents of Oleshky for receiving humanitarian aid parcels, throwing them 'into the cellar', beating them brutally and resorting to violence," Prokudin said.
- Sybiha said the planned videos were part of a weeks-long Russian propaganda campaign aimed at denying the humanitarian crisis in Oleshky.
- Residents face severe shortages of food, water, and electricity, while mines, constant drone attacks, and interrogations by Russian troops at checkpoints make it impossible to evacuate safely.
- Tetiana Hasanenko, exiled head of the Oleshky City Military Administration, confirmed reports circulating on Telegram that four civilians were injured and one was killed by landmine explosions around Oleshky over the past day.
- Hasanenko said Ukrainian forces had delivered food to the Russian-controlled town by drone on several occasions, but that the latest operation was considerably larger, involving approximately four tonnes of supplies.
- According to the regional administration, heavy drones transported approximately four tonnes of food and medicines to about 100 locations around Oleshky.