Eating Garden Weeds to Survive in Russian-Occupied Ukrainian City Cut Off From Food and Water

Residents of Oleshky, a Ukrainian town under Russian occupation, have described to the BBC extreme conditions of deprivation, including eating garden weeds to survive after being cut off from reliable access to food and water.

Those interviewed said the town has been subject to what they described as constant shelling, creating a dangerous environment that further complicates efforts to secure basic supplies or move safely around the area.

The residents' accounts point to a humanitarian situation in which conventional food supply chains have broken down, forcing some to turn to foraging for edible plants growing in gardens and open spaces as a means of sustenance.

Oleshky, located in a region that has seen intense fighting and shifting control since the start of the war, has previously been the site of significant flooding and infrastructure damage, compounding the challenges faced by remaining residents under occupation.

The accounts gathered by the BBC could not be independently verified in full, given the difficulty of accessing occupied areas for international media, but they align with broader patterns of hardship reported in other occupied and front-line areas of Ukraine.

Humanitarian organisations have repeatedly raised concerns about the situation facing civilians in Russian-occupied areas of Ukraine, where access to aid and essential services is often severely restricted.

No response from Russian authorities regarding conditions in Oleshky was included in the available reporting, and the scale of the humanitarian need across the broader occupied region remains difficult to assess independently.