Residents Trapped in Russian-Held Oleshky Face Mines, Shortages and Drones

The road is mined. So, we're stuck here, Ludmilla said 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 been largely cut off from fresh supplies of food or medicine for months, according to multiple accounts.

Some recent deliveries have gone through, organized by volunteers or aid groups. Photos show a crowd of people, many elderly, fetching fresh supplies in a city square.

It was a relief even if prices were high, Ludmilla said, as people have had to forage for food in neighbors' abandoned homes. Ludmilla is not her real name. The names of other residents who spoke to the BBC have been changed to protect their identities.

Any attempt to leave Oleshky is to gamble with your life along what's been dubbed the Road of Death, locals say, due to reports of heavy mining.

Oleshky is imprisoned by both geography and war: cut off by a river and wrecked bridges to the north, and dangerous or impassable roads inland.

The city lies on the left or east bank of the Dnipro River and has been under Russian occupation since the Kremlin launched its full-scale invasion. Ukrainian troops are dug in on the other side of the river, just outside Kherson, the big city they recaptured in November 2022, driving the Russians back across the river.

Despite the dangers, some recent evacuations have succeeded along the Road of Death, southwest along the route of the Dnipro River.

Leaving Oleshky, everyone prayed to God that we wouldn't hit a mine, said Volodymyr, who is in his 50s.

Terrorized by drones and traumatized by seeing his neighbor's body carted away after she was hit by shelling, he said his family finally decided to leave.

Volodymyr recounted being driven out in an ambulance in an evacuation arranged by volunteers. Even that was horrifying.

The entire highway from Oleshky to Hola Prystan is littered with burned-out cars. Some of them burned with people still inside.

Satellite imagery from November shows at least eight damaged vehicles on a 1km stretch of the road heading out of Oleshky toward Kardashynka, which is on the way to Hola Prystan.

There is also what seems to be a large scorch mark on the road between Kardashynka and Hola Prystan, which first appeared sometime in late January.

Verified footage from the same period shows a badly damaged vehicle that appears to have veered off the road, possibly corresponding to claims that vehicles, such as ambulances, have been blown up or strayed onto mines.

Similar scenes are replicated along the E97 road to the east of the city, although satellite imagery suggests the damage there dates back much further.

Small trench networks are visible at intersections on approaches to the city, indicating the area is militarized, but these have also been in place for many months.

The BBC has been in contact with seven people who say they are either still in Oleshky or recently evacuated.

The accounts came through phone calls or messaging apps as well as questions sent through a Ukrainian official who has remained in touch with residents.

The BBC has not been able to fully verify each account but has sought to corroborate stories through photos, location data and online records where possible. Ludmilla's own home was destroyed, she said, when the Kakhovka Dam further up the Dnipro River was blown up under Russian occupation in June 2023, causing catastrophic flooding.

She won't move because there's no point, she explained, as the destruction is still going on everywhere.

They sit in basements. We don't see them but they're there.

Claims have surfaced that bodies can lie uncollected for days or, in the case of Russian soldiers, abandoned altogether by the military to rot.

Ukrainian Parliament Commissioner for Human Rights Dmytro Lubinets said he has appealed to Russian authorities for a humanitarian corridor to allow safe evacuations.

Ukrainian officials claim that both civilians and Russian soldiers stationed in the city have been left to their fate by the occupying authorities.

Russia's Embassy in London told the BBC that the humanitarian difficulties were because of systematic strikes by Ukrainian forces on the city.

But he claimed Ukrainian forces keep volunteers informed about safe routes while he accused Russia of scattering such explosives.

Some residents say they would like to leave, but that is not necessarily the case for everyone.

Elderly Ukrainians in frontline towns can be particularly reluctant to swap their homes for an unknown future.

Another resident called Hanna described recently seeing a drone hovering right above a woman aged about 90.

She just looked up, waved her hand as if to say: 'Come what may' and hobbled on.