Ukraine’s religious leaders are pleading with Pope Leo XIV and global faith leaders, as well as the international community, to “use every available means” to save Ukrainian civilians facing starvation amid a Russian blockade. Source: OSV News.
In a September 19 appeal, the Ukrainian Council of Churches and Religious Organisations called for urgent action to address “the humanitarian catastrophe in the city of Oleshky,” located in Ukraine‘s southern Kherson region.
The area, under temporary Russian occupation, is estimated to have more than 6000 civilians remaining there, including some 200 children, who are “effectively trapped in a ‘gray zone’ near the front line,” UCCRO said.
Russian forces have imposed a “humanitarian blockade”, with food supplies last “delivered to the area at the end of May”, UCCRO said.
Over the past several months, the Washington-based Institute for the Study of War has issued multiple warnings of a “dire” and “Russian-manufactured humanitarian crisis” in Oleshky.
In its September 17 assessment, ISW noted Oleshky has not received any food deliveries since May 26. Drone attacks, mines and Russian occupation forces have prevented the remaining residents from fleeing.
ISW said that Russia has “deliberately weaponised deprivation and bureaucratic mismanagement,” with the blockade placing “thousands at risk of disease, starvation, and abuse at the hands of Russian forces.”
Russian officials have repeatedly refused to permit both evacuations and humanitarian aid, said Ukraine’s foreign minister Andrii Sybiha in a Facebook post on Monday.
Mr Sybiha said in his post that “chilling accounts are emerging” from Oleshky of residents who “scavenge for food scraps and gather grass, as there is simply no other food available.”
Along with food, other essential supplies such as medicines have been “completely blocked”, he said.
Mr Sybiha pledged to discuss the Oleshky humanitarian crisis at the UN General Assembly in New York, which is meeting from September 18-28.
The council appealed to “Pope Leo, the World Council of Churches, the World Evangelical Alliance, other religious leaders, representatives of various faith communities, and human rights non-governmental organisations to raise their voices and use every available means to save the residents of Oleshky … from death by starvation.”
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Pope, other world faith leaders urged to save starving Ukrainian victims of Russian blockade (By Gina Christian, OSV News)
