Calgary Ukrainians rally for civilians trapped in occupied Oleshky

Calgary's Ukrainian community gathered Sunday, Oct. 4, to call for humanitarian action for civilians trapped in Oleshky, a Russian-occupied city in Ukraine's Kherson region, CTV News Calgary reported.

Those at the rally said about 2,000 people remain in the city. They said the last food delivery arrived in May and that residents have been growing vegetables to survive.

Participants called for more international pressure on Russia to allow a humanitarian corridor, so food and medicine can be delivered and residents can leave. They also want international humanitarian organizations to be allowed in to provide aid.

"It's extremely difficult to evacuate people from Oleshky because Russian drones chase people, chase cars, and also the roads and fields around Oleshky and neighbouring neighbourhoods are mined," Anna Tselukhina, president of the Calgary branch of the Ukrainian Canadian Congress, told CTV News. "So it's deadly dangerous to try to escape (from) there."

Tselukhina compared the situation to the Holodomor, the man-made famine in Soviet Ukraine in 1932-33. "In November we will talk about Holodomor in many different cities in Canada," she said. "(It's a) Holodomor in 21st century, and Russia continues to use hunger as a weapon."

A city on the front line

Oleshky sits on the southern, or left, bank of the Dnipro River, across from the city of Kherson. Russian troops seized it in 2022, and the Kyiv Independent reports it has been occupied since the early days of the full-scale invasion. In November 2022, Russia pulled its forces out of Kherson city and off the river's western bank to defend a line along the Dnipro, the BBC reported. AFP describes Oleshky as a front-line city where the front has barely moved since 2023.

The city was badly flooded after the Kakhovka dam was destroyed on June 6, 2023. Days later, the town's exiled mayor told The Associated Press that about 90 per cent of the city was still under water. Russia and Ukraine blame each other for the dam breach.

AFP reports that about 2,000 people remain in Oleshky, down from about 24,000 before the invasion. The Guardian reported Sept. 27 that food supplies stopped entirely in May as Russian forces expanded minefields and drone cover. Ukrainian officials have since used drones to drop food and medicine into the city, most recently nearly four tonnes overnight on Oct. 4, according to Ukraine's Interior Ministry. Ukrainian officials say Russian forces have confiscated some of the aid. Ukraine's human rights commissioner, Dmytro Lubinets, said Oct. 3 that Kyiv is ready to begin evacuations with the International Committee of the Red Cross, but that Russia has rejected proposals for safe routes and a ceasefire. He has also said more than 6,000 people may remain in the city.

Russian officials, including Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov, have blamed Ukrainian forces for blocking aid. The UN's human rights chief, Volker Türk, has called the situation "desperate," and the European Union said Oct. 1 that it is "particularly alarming."