Oleshky: No access to basic needs, ceasefire offers limited opportunity for humanitarian assistance

We begin this hour in Ukraine, where the evacuation of residents stranded in Oleshky, a city under Russian occupation on the front lines, has begun this Friday. It's part of a U.S. A brokered ceasefire deal agreed to by Ukraine and Russia. An aid convoy bringing much-needed supplies to starving people has arrived in the town. The residents were told they can leave for Ukraine or Russia if they want. Oleshky is on the opposite side of the Dnipro River from Kherson and was seized by Russian troops during the early days of their full-scale invasion of Ukraine nearly five years ago. To discuss this further, let's now bring in our guest, Jens Schumacher. He's a field coordinator in Mykolaiv and person with Solidarity International. So Jens, let's begin with where you are and what is it like where you are? So thanks for having me. I'm based in Mykolaiv and working, as you said, as a field coordinator for Solidarité Internationale. We are covering the region of Kherson and the region of Mykolaiv. And we are working with partners in Kherson City, which is three to four kilometers far from Oleshky. So Kherson City is on the right riverbank in the de-occupied area, so controlled by Ukrainian armed forces. And Oleshky is part of the occupied territories of the Kherson region. Yeah. And as you said, on Tuesday, the ceasefire started will last until this Sunday. And the question is how to support the remaining around 2,000 people in the area of Oleshky. A big problem at the moment is the demarcation of the ceasefire area. So it's not clear if the focus of the ceasefire is just on Oleshky or even concerning surrounding areas. Yes, but what is obvious is that since Tuesday. The two regions, Mykolaiv and Kherson, is benefiting from a very calm situation. No air raid alarm, no air attacks for the moment, which gives us and other humanitarian actors the opportunity to continue providing assistance to vulnerable people in very critical areas, which are near the front line. Or directly affected by hostilities of the front line. So this is a good situation, but we have to see how will be the situation after Sunday. It's not clear. Will there be more ceasefire arrangements for the region to ensure a kind of humanitarian corridor to the frontline area or will the situation deteriorate further? Because before the ceasefire, the situation was extremely critical compared, for instance, with last year. As you know, we are approaching winter season and assistance to those people living in the frontline areas or near the frontline areas is part of, it's a key commitment we have at the moment and it's the most worrying of the assistance we are providing. So this is the situation. On the other hand, I should say that accessing information on Oleshky is very difficult because humanitarian actors are not directly involved. It's mostly handed by the Ukrainian government. As you know, an ombudsman of the government is present in the region. On behalf of Ukraine. So for us, it's very difficult. It's not even clear if all people will be evacuated, if some people will remain. So there's lots of rumors in social media, in particular in Telegram channels, and access to information is not so easy. And us and most of the humanitarian actors here in the South are not directly present through their staff in this area. So we can't say what is the situation. We don't really know what are... The urgent needs and even to provide direct assistance to Oleshky and the surrounding areas. Although, as I said, it's just three to four kilometers far from Kherson city. So very close. So, Jens, just to go over for a moment, I mean, Oleshky, as you had said, it's basically been under Russian occupation almost the whole time before the war. We had heard that, you know, food supplies were very low. There was reports of people starving and now aid supplies have gotten in. What other situations would the residents there have been facing? Yeah, then it's not like, so as for other areas close to the frontline, the problem is access to water, it's access to proper sanitation, it is proper housing conditions, so shelter, and other basic needs like non-food items. or any other equipment to be prepared for the winter season like solid fuel, the heating conditions. So that's the general situation in Kherson city as or in other frontline communities as is the case for Oleshky. It's ranging from water, sanitation, food, And basic needs, as I said, being well prepared for the winter season. So this is what humanitarian actors, international, national NGOs, UN agencies, as well as Solidarité Internationale is doing to assist those people being directly affected from this war situation since February 2022. Yeah, the situation in Oleshky indeed was very critical because the city was sieged for quite a while by Russian forces, there was no access to basic needs, to essential assistance, there's no humanitarian actor operating in this area, so it was, yeah, it is a very critical situation. I guess the humanitarian community is very glad that this ceasefire has been arranged to provide assistance and even, if needed, evacuate the people from the settlement. Jens, thank you so much for speaking with us and giving us more details about the situation on the ground there in Ukraine. That's Jens Schumacher, field coordinator in Mykolaiv and Kherson with Solidarity International.