@aloha-hoosier my uncles are Vietnam combat marines. They’d think as lowly of you as I. I watch you more closely than other posters bc of your military history. Snarl jet coh and others have called you out. You’re basically a Dem at this point. You align on here with the farthest of the left. The woke morons. Mas is right about you. You’re basically a Democrat Gilligan.
The resident burnout wokester seals the deal - if he comes to your defense there’s little doubt he sees you as one of his own kind…🤣
Your response is cowardly, but no surprise there. Make your dimwitted posts about me directly to me or don’t make them at all. I’ll crush you either way because:
Dumbest Posters in WC History list
1) dbm
2) OneBrainCell
3)
Which would be worse, 1 million AI configured drones with ordinance, or 1 Nuke?
https://www.reddit.com/r/UkraineWarVideoReport/s/RXOQeJb3su
Tantrums don't change outcomes
Losing is part of life. Sometimes the answer is simply NO.
Oleshky, an occupied city just 9 kilometers from Kherson, is going through the most difficult period in its modern history. People are trapped, unable to leave safely, without food and with no chance of rescue. Local residents, their relatives and volunteers have sent us accounts describing the full scale of the disaster.
"I'll say it right away, we're completely screwed! People are no longer just cooking grass soup for animals, but for themselves too. As for bread, I won't even start."
"There are no food or medicine deliveries. There is no evacuation. There is no help at all. People are surviving however they can."
"Two men were carrying food from Radensk to Oleshky. On the way, they came under a drone attack and both were killed. The food was left lying next to them. The sausage is still untouched, the dogs don't eat it. They eat the dead people."
"The city is under blockade. People are dying of hunger. There is not even food in the hospital. The Russians have blocked and mined absolutely everything. They are also taking the last things people have."
"If the hospital closes, the city will die."
"If people stay, they are doomed."
The city has been on the brink of a humanitarian catastrophe for almost a year, since late 2025. The last food supplies reached Oleshky on May 26. Since then, there has been no regular supply, leaving people on the verge of starvation.
But food is not the only problem. Since the occupation began four years ago and the destruction of the Kakhovka Dam, the city has had no electricity, gas or drinking water. There is also a critical shortage of medicine. Although the hospital is the only facility still operating to some extent, even basic medical care cannot always be provided there.
All roads and approaches to Oleshky are mined. The city is located just a few kilometers from Ukrainian-controlled territory. This is within easy drone range for both sides, so the skies over Oleshky are filled every day with drones hunting other drones and anything moving on the ground. Commercial drivers who tried to reach the city with food by car in the summer came under heavy fire and were forced to turn back.
The evacuation of civilians is impossible. Oleshky is under a complete blockade.
The Ukrainian side appealed to the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and its partners to organize the evacuation of civilians. After six months, none of the negotiations produced results. Russia, which has controlled the city since February 2022, did not agree to a humanitarian corridor. The article says Russia is using local residents as human shields against Ukrainian defense forces.
"I always say: it's the 21st century, but it feels like some kind of ghetto is happening there," says a volunteer helping people leave the city.
Ukrainska Pravda collected accounts from Oleshky residents, their relatives, volunteers, officials and military personnel. This is the story of how the city is surviving under occupation and whether there is any way out when all roads are closed.
Five hours on the road to buy food
Oleshky is an ancient Cossack city on the left bank of the Dnipro, near Kherson. Before the full-scale war, tourists and people from the regional capital came there seeking peace and the chance to enjoy its unique nature, where desert meets pine forest and the forest gives way to the Dnipro floodplains. Oleshky residents themselves also traveled to Kherson, separated from the city by just 9 kilometers across the Dnipro. Since the end of February 2022, after the Russian occupation of the left bank and the destruction of the bridges, the connection between the two cities has been cut.
Oleshky is not the only place on the left bank facing a humanitarian catastrophe. There are also problems with food, medicine and transportation in Hola Prystan, Stara and Nova Zburivka and other settlements in the region.
But the situation is particularly critical in Oleshky and the surrounding villages of the community. According to rough estimates by volunteers, up to 1,500 people remain in the city, including about 40 children. Another 4,000 people, including an estimated 150 children, remain in the community's villages. Before the full-scale invasion, almost 40,000 people lived there in total.
Because there is no electricity, people now rarely communicate with their relatives. Some have been out of contact for months, while those who can charge their phones with a generator sometimes manage to make a 20-30 second call or send a message. Most often, people ask about the possibility of leaving and complain about the lack of food.
The last food delivery to Oleshky took place at the end of May, when local entrepreneurs managed to enter the city in two commercial vehicles.
No subsequent attempt to deliver food was successful. In one such incident, on June 2, four vehicles hit mines and two people were killed. By the end of the summer, any attempt to enter the city had become pointless because of continuous shelling.
"The situation in our city is simply terrible. People have run out of food. They are cooking soup with grass, adding purslane, lamb's quarters and amaranth. I'm not even talking about the animals, they're suffering the most. I just cry and cry and don't understand what to do," says a local Oleshky resident.
During the summer, people survived on what they grew in their gardens. Almost no one goes into the forest around Oleshky, where they could gather berries and mushrooms, or to the river, where they could catch fish. People are afraid that if mines are lying near the city's main streets and a drone could be hiding there, the same danger is even greater in places with tall grass and no residents.
So locals ate their own vegetables and fruit, while some caught pigeons or pheasants. Others made borscht "the new way," using eggs, zucchini, tomatoes and grass. People exchanged food, while some items were bought or sold at a small informal market that formed near the hospital. Prices there are not simply high, but almost astronomical. Eggs sell for 800 hryvnias per dozen, potatoes and onions for 500, zucchini for 250, tomatoes for 200 because they had a good harvest, and peppers and carrots for 75 hryvnias each.
"A neighbor brought zucchini to the hospital to give it away. An acquaintance came up to him and asked, 'How much?' He said he was giving it away for free. The acquaintance started crying, thanked him and said that last time he had bought them for 500 rubles (265 hryvnias, UP). That's how it is, even during a blockade and famine, there are people who profit from others' suffering," says a man whose acquaintances remain in Oleshky.
Some people take the risk of going to the village of Radensk, 20 kilometers away, to buy food. However, such trips are rare because the roads are mined, drones monitor the routes, and pedestrians are easily visible in open terrain. It also takes about five hours or more to walk there. One woman recently went to Radensk for the first time and told UP that prices there are lower and that it is possible to buy some food. In addition to supplies for herself, she was also buying for relatives she helps survive in Oleshky.
"I am recovering after the trip to Radensk. I got there by bicycle and walked back. I loaded up with almost 85 kilograms: a sack of grain, a carton of cigarettes for 1,500 rubles, 5 kg of potatoes, onions, cabbage, peppers and pasta. I could barely carry it. I want to go again because there wasn't enough, and this was for three families.
"That's how we survive. The main thing is that they don't harass us on the way," the Oleshky resident says.
People who go to Radensk for food stock up for immediate use or for later in the autumn. Selling is out of the question because no one knows whether they will have another opportunity to leave. Russian forces also constantly fly drones over the area and can strike people at any moment.
All roads leading out of Oleshky have become roads of death.
Volunteer Kseniia Arkhipova, who is originally from the city and still maintains contact with local residents, told UP that there have been many cases of Russian soldiers robbing people, attacking convoys carrying food to Oleshky and taking everything for themselves. The occupiers receive weapons, but they do not always have food. Some locals have therefore started writing on their gates or fences: "No food," "No food here," "Old people live here."
"If they [Russian soldiers] have to carry 20 kilograms of drones, ammunition or 20 kilograms of food, what will they carry? Logically, the drones. Some soldiers walked to Oleshky during a rotation for 13 days, through fields, forests and destroyed roads. So they themselves can be hungry and without food.
"People are robbed every day. They completely emptied an elderly woman's house. She asked them, 'How am I supposed to survive the winter? What are you doing?' They told her to shut up. They themselves admit that they don't care about the people, that they came to make money and that's it," Arkhipova says.
As winter approaches, the situation is getting worse. Tetiana Hasanenko, head of the Oleshky City Military Administration, told UP that it is not a situation where some families have food while others do not. Everyone is going hungry.
"A few days ago, I heard for the first time that there are already cases of individual families eating dogs. Just a week ago I denied such information, but now someone from there confirmed it to me. There really is nothing to eat. The situation is getting worse not just every day, but every hour.
"And there is no chance of rescue. People have two options: either die a natural death from hunger, or get hit by a drone or artillery shell and be shot because they will be killed. There is no third option. And the possibility of staying there without food and surviving is zero," Hasanenko says.
In winter, it will be impossible to travel to Radensk or other settlements for food. It will be like playing Russian roulette, because the ground will freeze and be covered with snow, while all the exits from the city and the surrounding fields are covered with mines.
A hospital that does not treat patients, and a morgue piled with bodies
Until recently, people in Oleshky who had run completely out of food and were weakened would go to the local hospital. They were fed whatever was available. However, volunteers say that even the hospital is running out of food. And even when food or fuel for the generator was somehow delivered, nothing reached ordinary residents.
"The hospital has split into two clans. Those who are loyal to the Russian regime have some food, and sometimes even meat and alcohol. But people who are called pro-Ukrainian have nothing. The hospital's chief supply manager took everything from the latest deliveries that were sent as humanitarian aid and distributed it among his own people. He tells people that he has 200 disabled people and will give it to them first. But in reality, he trades everything, giving away fuel and food to whoever he wants. And people see all of this," says the son of a man who remained in Oleshky.
However, even the hospital's continued operation is now in question. Civilian patients have already begun to be turned away. According to UP's sources, the hospital was already operating on a very limited basis, so it was easier to say that it was effectively closed. There is nothing available to provide even basic medical care. They can only stop bleeding. There are no medicines or antibiotics, and there is no equipment. The generator is turned on once every few days because there is no fuel either.
"Everything is bad there. It is operating on its last legs. The hospital asks local people to bring whatever porridge, grains or other food they have so that they can at least feed breakfast to bedridden patients, including those with amputations. It is the only place people can still come to spend the night because it is not shelled, stay there and eat some hot porridge if they manage to cook it using the generator's electricity. But everything there is critical. And if the hospital stops working, that's the end of Oleshky," says Kseniia Arkhipova.
This hospital is the city's last outpost. No other essential infrastructure, including pharmacies and shops, is operating. Ambulances do not operate either because some streets in Oleshky are mined. If people are brought to the hospital at all, they are transported on a garden cart. Many locals have died from hunger, illness, military strikes or mines. Some were buried by relatives right in their yards or gardens, while others were simply left lying in the streets.
"Usually, people who suffer traumatic amputations or injuries remain lying there [in the street, UP] until dogs eat them. Or they are simply covered with a piece of cloth. And they will lie there until the bodies are eaten by worms," Hasanenko says.
The bodies of the dead were once stored in a morgue operating on the hospital grounds in Oleshky. Now, because the building was damaged, the bodies have had to be moved to the basement of one of the hospital's other buildings, which is now piled with corpses. Some have been lying there for more than four months, since May.
"In the hospital morgue, everything is leaking and smells. The bodies in those black bags have decomposed. But why do they [the occupiers, UP] say that no bodies can be buried independently? Because they want to take the bodies to Henichesk for examination and issue a report saying that the Ukrainian Armed Forces are shooting people and houses, that people died from mine and explosive injuries, artillery strikes and drone attacks. Then they can submit all of this to the UN. And of course, the examination reports say whatever they need them to say. Although I am sure they don't even open those body bags," Arkhipova says.
The road of death, but also the road of life
There are no Ukrainian troops in Oleshky. They monitor the city from the right bank of the Dnipro using drone cameras.
"Russians live in people's homes or try to dig trenches on the outskirts and establish positions there. Their artillery is concentrated a little farther away. They tried to move it closer, but the closer you move it to the riverbank, the farther it can fire toward Kherson. And we try not to let the artillery get closer. We constantly patrol and try to cover the sky with drones to monitor everything happening in Oleshky," Yevhen Voronetskyi, a serviceman with the 34th Separate Marine Brigade "Borysfen," told UP.
The Russian army attacks the main road out of the city with drones while telling residents that it is the Ukrainian Defense Forces who are preventing them from leaving and who are also mining the roads. Voronetskyi explains that remote mining exists and that Ukrainian forces do mine some routes to prevent Russian troops from receiving weapons. However, the main road is left open so that people can leave. At the same time, it is in Russia's interest for civilians to remain in Oleshky because they use them as human shields.
"Their main idea is to keep people from leaving the city. This allows the occupiers to blend in with the local population. They change into civilian clothes, violating the Geneva Convention, and no longer look like combatants. But we patrol the sky and already understand what everyone looks like," adds the serviceman from the 34th Separate Marine Brigade.
There are times when Ukrainian defenders can stop strikes on Oleshky to protect civilians, while the occupiers use the opportunity to actively strike toward Ukrainian forces.
Asked whether it was true that Russian forces might have transported weapons along with humanitarian aid in spring and summer 2026, the serviceman did not answer either "yes" or "no." He noted, however, that it would be "very logical." A vehicle supposedly carrying medicine, food or fuel into the city can disappear from the view of Ukrainian drones for 10-15 minutes, which is enough time to intimidate the driver and put "something" into the vehicle. Otherwise, it is difficult to explain where the Russians are getting ammunition and drones in a completely blockaded city.
The Ukrainian serviceman says that the Defense Forces help local residents leave the city along the main road and sometimes use drones to guide people along a relatively safer route.
"There aren't many ways out of Oleshky. And the central route can at least be controlled to some extent. So it is a road of death, but also a road of life. Of course, there are often aerial battles when the Russians try to shoot down our drone with theirs, and we try to shoot theirs down with ours. And all of this happens just 1.5-2 meters above the ground when you are guiding people with a drone. We want as many people as possible to leave the city. If there were no civilians, it would be much easier for us to operate," the serviceman explains.
Is there a way out of occupied Oleshky?
The only way for people in occupied Oleshky and the surrounding villages to leave is evacuation to Ukrainian-controlled territory. But as of now, there are no visible prospects that Russia will stop using civilians as a human shield and allow people to leave through a humanitarian corridor. Meanwhile, Russian propaganda claims that Kyiv is responsible for people starving in the city occupied by Russia and that the Defense Forces could stage provocations during an evacuation.
Russian sources cover the humanitarian catastrophe in Oleshky selectively and in a politicized manner. They reduce the situation to two claims: that locals are supposedly suffering because of Ukraine's actions, while the occupation administration, which in fact has not been there since 2023 because it fled after the destruction of the Kakhovka Dam, supposedly provides aid, medical care and basic administration. Attention is shifted away from the fact of the occupation and its consequences toward an image of Russia as the country that is "saving" people.
Dmytro Lubinets, the Ukrainian Parliament Commissioner for Human Rights, told UP that Ukraine had agreements with the Russian side, while the International Committee of the Red Cross was supposed to assist with evacuating people from the grey zone. The list of local residents, as well as arrangements for the Defense Forces to maintain a ceasefire, had been agreed upon. However, as of September 22, Russia had still not confirmed its readiness to carry out the evacuation.
Lubinets said he was preparing new letters to the ICRC, the UN and partners because the situation in Oleshky was critical.
"I do not want to create false expectations among people or give specific timelines [for a possible evacuation, UP] until Russia confirms its readiness for a humanitarian mission. But we are using all available mechanisms to secure the evacuation of civilians who have effectively found themselves trapped," the ombudsman said.
Lubinets also added that his office, together with the Defense Forces, was currently trying to provide locals with food and humanitarian aid.
The ICRC confirmed to UP that it remains in contact with the Ukrainian and Russian authorities regarding Oleshky. The committee is ready to provide assistance with an evacuation as soon as it is safe for the people involved.
Locals do not believe a humanitarian corridor will be established. In more than four years, there has been no official evacuation of civilians from Oleshky. Not after the destruction of the Kakhovka Dam, when homes were flooded, and not now, when the city is on the brink of starvation.
Stefan Vorontsov, a volunteer with the NGO Humanity, told UP that an agreed evacuation across the Dnipro toward Kherson could potentially be an optimal and relatively safe option. This would be faster and would avoid having to travel through occupied territories and Russia. The Red Cross could provide security for the humanitarian corridor.
"Not carrying out the evacuation across the Dnipro is a very big mistake. I see that this isn't even being communicated [by the Ukrainian authorities, UP]. We really have people from Oleshky who are afraid of filtration and of spending several days traveling through Russia. A bus could evacuate a maximum of 300 people. And that's a good initiative. But there are many more people than that," Vorontsov says.
No one crosses the Dnipro independently because the front line runs along the river, with sabotage and reconnaissance groups, military personnel and generally extremely dangerous conditions. Fighting for the islands between Kherson and Oleshky is still ongoing.
But the fact remains that some people have managed to escape the city through mined fields. They followed the logic that "it is better to die on the road than die of hunger" and left Oleshky on foot, one or two people at a time, heading toward Radensk or Hola Prystan. From there, they could take a taxi to Nova Kakhovka or Skadovsk. After that, everyone followed their own route.
Those who are hearing about the situation in Oleshky for the first time may ask why locals did not leave earlier. The answer is that escaping the occupation is difficult, and people faced several problems at once.
The first is that some locals have no documents. They were burned or destroyed by the flooding after the destruction of the dam. To leave the occupied territories, a Russian passport is generally required. Not everyone has one either. Obtaining one requires proof of identity or Ukrainian documents. But people in occupied territory cannot obtain these from the Ukrainian state and its authorities. Relatives and acquaintances contacted government agencies asking for copies or electronic versions of Ukrainian documents belonging to Oleshky residents, but never received them.
The second problem is local residents, particularly older people, who do not want to abandon their homes.
"I built this house and I'm not going anywhere" is the category of people who genuinely have nowhere to go. Ukraine has nothing waiting for them. There is no system where a grandmother arrives, volunteers take her by the hand, give her an address and tell her to go to a certain village where there is a house. Her pension is arranged, she receives assistance as an internally displaced person. Nothing like that exists. There is no help, there are no homes. People leave and think, "What do I do next? Where are we going to go?" says a volunteer who helps people leave the occupied territories.
The third problem is that some men of conscription age fear that Russian forces will pull them out of their vehicles at checkpoints, throw them into a basement or send them to fight for Russia in the so-called "SMO."
Many local residents also hoped that after the successful counteroffensive and liberation of Kherson in November 2022, the Ukrainian Armed Forces would enter Oleshky just as triumphantly. People held the same hope at the beginning of 2023, believing that Ukrainian troops would cross the Dnipro.
A year or two later, some people already felt guilty for waiting and remaining under occupation. Then part of the locals' hopes and plans, along with all their documents and accumulated property, were washed away by the Kakhovka Dam flooding. Without documents, they became hostages of their own city.
Esther Vratarova, a volunteer with the NGO Humanity, told UP that leaving Oleshky was extremely difficult and that Russian propaganda spreads the idea that people simply did not want to leave.
"Leaving the occupied territories is difficult. It is not an easy walk. And not everyone has access to information because it is spread mostly by word of mouth. There were no systematic state evacuations and there still aren't. So blaming people who were literally taken hostage, turned into human shields and had their territory turned into a ghetto is absolutely immoral. And we must do everything to prevent this idea from spreading," Vratarova emphasizes.
A winter that people in Oleshky may not survive
There are still intact private houses in Oleshky, as well as parts of apartment buildings where some floors and basements have survived. It is possible to find a roof over your head, but living under it is not always safe.
Last winter, three elderly women and one elderly man froze to death in their apartments, volunteers say. These are only the cases they know about. It is impossible to count how many quiet deaths occur in Oleshky.
Under the Fourth Geneva Convention, responsibility for the population of an occupied territory lies with the occupying power. It is required to provide people with food, medical care and adequate sanitary conditions. But the Russians have no regard for any international requirements. It is pointless to expect them to provide food for the people of Oleshky.
"Russia is responsible for this territory. And if people remain there, they are doomed. They are truly doomed to die. So while there is still an opportunity, people need to leave Oleshky on foot in one direction," says Kseniia Arkhipova.
Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha raised the humanitarian catastrophe in Oleshky as a separate issue at the UN General Assembly session, which is taking place from September 21 to 26. Meanwhile, as world leaders listen and discuss the situation from the podium, people in the small town on the banks of the Dnipro face one of the most difficult choices of their lives: try to leave or stay. And in either case, deadly danger hangs over them.
Natalia Bodnar, Anastasiia Zazuliak, UP
Tantrums don't change outcomes
Losing is part of life. Sometimes the answer is simply NO.
Snowballs roll and thus get bigger. Are we at the 50% point of russian collapse? 45%, 55%??? ./.. either way, it's gaining speed. Also just reported that russian gov is not increaseing "tax" by 27% for cell phone transaction on it's own people to fund the huge hole in their war spending... I hope they all burn in hell.
https://www.reddit.com/r/UkraineWarVideoReport/s/B9dt0HQNkh
Tantrums don't change outcomes
Losing is part of life. Sometimes the answer is simply NO.
We are the bad guys.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/oct/10/ukraine-russia-strikes-war-trump-diesel-deal-zelenskyy
WTF type of games is this prick trying to pull off? I’m tired boss, really tired!
Tantrums don't change outcomes
Losing is part of life. Sometimes the answer is simply NO.
WTF type of games is this prick trying to pull off? I’m tired boss, really tired!
Time to stop pretending or hoping this is any kind of n-dimensional chess, and accepting the fact that he's just an asshole who wants to sign us up for the Axis Powers.
He's really pissing me off on this one! STFU sTrump!
Tantrums don't change outcomes
Losing is part of life. Sometimes the answer is simply NO.
You can have lower diesel prices or you can support Ukraine to the hilt. You can’t do both. The problem is that Democrats are mostly children who believe in a governmental magic bullet to every problem and don’t understand tradeoffs.
”We” being the President whose foreign policy is dumber than dirt and favors our adversaries over our partners and allies.We are the bad guys.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/oct/10/ukraine-russia-strikes-war-trump-diesel-deal-zelenskyy
