"Families Survive By Growing Their Own Vegetables And Even Collecting Snails."

• 17.10.2026, 18:46

Sibiga thanked the Pope for calling on Putin to cease fire in Oleshky.

Ukraine calls on the UN, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), and all partners to use all available channels to ensure safe evacuation corridors and immediate humanitarian access to the town of Oleshky in the Kherson region, which is occupied by the Russian Federation’s army. This was stated by Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andriy Sibiga.

According to Sibiga, approximately 1,700 people remain trapped in occupied Oleshky without food or medicine.

“The only road leading out of Oleshky is mined and under surveillance by attack drones. Those who try to flee risk being killed. The nearby river is also mined. Residents doubt they will survive this winter. The hospital has run out of medicine. Dozens of bodies lie in the streets and in homes, as the Russians are forbidding local residents from burying the dead. Families are starving, surviving on whatever vegetables remain in their gardens, homemade preserves, and even snails. According to residents, Russian soldiers threatened them with weapons to take their food,” Sibiga said.

The diplomat thanked Pope Leo XIV for his appeal to Putin to establish a ceasefire in Oleshky to ensure the delivery of humanitarian aid.

“People cannot survive on statements of concern alone. They need real action. They need a path to salvation. And they need it right now,” Sibiga added.

The day before, Pope Leo XIV, speaking from the hospital where he is recovering from surgery to remove a tumor, spoke by phone with Russian President Vladimir Putin. The pontiff expressed deep concern over the dire humanitarian situation in the city of Oleshky in the Kherson region and called for a ceasefire to ensure the delivery of food and medical aid, as well as the voluntary and safe evacuation of the civilian population.