BBC World reports: To stay or risk the 'Road of Death' - Ukrainian civilians trapped in frontline city1 hour agoShareSaveAdd as preferred on GoogleJessica Parker,in KyivandPaul Brown,BBC VerifyTelegramPeople in Oleshky say fresh food supplies are rare and they have to rely on volunteers and aid groups"The road is mined. So, we're stuck here," says Ludmilla, over the phone from the rooftop of a fire-damaged house in southern Ukraine. "People are trying their best to survive."Her frontline home city of Oleshky has, according to multiple accounts, been largely cut off from fresh supplies of food or medicine for months.Ludmilla describes being trapped there, and watching it decaying before her eyes.Ukraine's commissioner for human rights has warned of a "humanitarian crisis."Some recent deliveries do seem to have gone through, organised by volunteers or aid groups.
Photos seen by the BBC show a crowd of people, many of them elderly, apparently fetching fresh supplies in a city square.A relief even if prices were high, says Ludmilla, as people have had to forage for food in the abandoned homes of neighbours. Ludmilla is not her real name. Even that was horrifying."The entire highway from Oleshky to Hola Prystan' is littered with burnt-out cars.
Background
Ludmilla's own home was destroyed, she says, when the Kakhovka Dam further up the Dnipro river was blown up under Russian occupation in June 2023, causing catastrophic flooding."I'm in someone else's house, which is also burned."She won't move because there's no point, she explains, as the destruction is still going on everywhere.Trees hit by shelling, we're told, are at least easier to break down for firewood.Inside the city, Russian soldiers are believed to be holed up in buildings, hiding from roving Ukrainian drones."They sit in basements," says Ludmilla. "She just looked up, waved her hand as if to say: 'Come what may' and hobbled on."Additional reporting by Aakriti Thapar, Anastasiia Levchenko, Mariana Matveichuk and Volodymyr Lozhko.War in UkraineUkraine
Originally reported by BBC World. This story has been edited and re-presented by BRIC Team.
