KYIV, Sept 22 (Reuters) – Ukraine will urge the international community at the UN General Assembly this week to pressure Russia into allowing humanitarian aid into the hunger-striken southern town of Oleshky, Kyiv’s foreign minister said.
Some 6,000 residents of the Russian-occupied town and nearby area in Ukraine’s Kherson region – including 200 children – were “dying from hunger and cold” under a “full blockade” by Russian forces, Andrii Sybiha said in a Facebook video late on Monday.
“The occupiers are not allowing humanitarian aid through. We have been negotiating evacuation for a long time … and Russia is giving no reply,” said Sybiha, who is in New York this week for the annual UN gathering.
“We will talk about Oleshky here, at the highest level, and we will apply pressure so that the world hears this and makes Russia provide humanitarian access.”
The Kremlin said on Monday the town was facing critical problems with food and medicine supplies, but that Russia’s military was working to resolve them.
‘EXTREMELY LIMITED’ ACCESS TO BASIC NECESSITIES
The plight of civilians in the front-line town on the Dnipro River, which separates Russian and Ukrainian forces, has drawn growing concern from international monitors.
Residents have endured months of food shortages and “extremely limited” access to basic necessities, according to the UN Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine.
“There has been no progress on the organized evacuation discussed several months ago or on a possible local ceasefire to allow civilians to leave,” Danielle Bell, head of the mission, told Reuters in a statement on Friday.
“We do not have information on where or why the discussions have stalled.”
Bell, citing volunteers in the area, said the local hospital remained in “a very difficult situation”, lacking fuel for its generator and sufficient food for patients. The approach of winter was likely to compound those challenges, she added.
Fighting between Ukraine and Russia is well into its fifth year, with no end in sight despite recent efforts to revive US-backed peace talks.
(Reporting by Anastasia Lyrchikova and Ron Popeski; Additional reporting by Yuliia Dysa; Writing by Dan Peleschuk; Editing by Daniel Flynn and Ros Russell)
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