Reuters reported that the evacuation of hundreds from Russian-held Oleshky reunited Larysa Ryndova and her husband in Kyiv after 4½ years apart, as residents faced severe shortages in the southern Ukrainian town.
Serhiy, 68, was among those who left on Oct. 30 during a ceasefire, Reuters said. Larysa, 72, had moved to England in 2022 to live with their son, while Serhiy stayed in Oleshky to care for their home.
Near a Kyiv hospital, Larysa told Serhiy, “I can’t believe you are here,” Reuters reported. Her trip from England to Kyiv covered about 2,000 kilometers (1,200 miles), and she planned to return to Britain with him, the report said.
Serhiy told Reuters that deliveries of food to Oleshky stopped around April 2026 after two men who had been bringing provisions died. Neighbors shared what they had, he said. Some residents made the roughly 20-kilometer trip to Radensk for food, walking or riding bicycles.
Mines made movement around the town dangerous, according to Serhiy. Reuters also reported that scarce provisions sold at steep prices and the town’s medical facility exhausted its supplies. Serhiy said bodies accumulated in the morgue; forensic specialists avoided traveling to Oleshky to conduct autopsies because of the risks, the report said.
Serhiy relied on food he had stored during the occupation, including noodles, grains and occasional canned meat or fish, Reuters reported. He also made flatbread using flour he had kept since before the war, though he said it was full of weevils.
The evacuation route took residents by bus and plane through occupied territory, Russia and Belarus, Reuters reported. EconoTimes previously reported other evacuees’ accounts of hunger and deadly risks in Oleshky.
Serhiy said leaving meant being separated from his home and the graves of relatives in Oleshky. Larysa planned to return to Britain with him, Reuters reported.
