Evacuation begins in Oleshky as left-bank villages face starvation

Residents of villages on the left bank of the Dnipro River in Ukraine's Kherson region are facing starvation, with no electricity, gas, or communication for years, and roads heavily mined and targeted by drones. A long-awaited evacuation from the town of Oleshky began on October 30, 2026, under a ceasefire. The report details that people risk death by drones and mines to travel for food, with prices skyrocketing (a kilogram of potatoes costs 1,500 rubles). Many residents are wounded, and the local morgue is non-functional, with bodies stored in bags. Volunteers are evacuating people, but large humanitarian organizations are not present in the region. The evacuation on October 30 saw hundreds of people, many with pets, gather in the rain to board buses to either Russia or Ukraine. While some residents refuse to leave their homes, the ceasefire has allowed people to travel to markets for the first time in five months, though many remain skeptical about the future.