LEILA FADEL, HOST:
Russia and Ukraine have agreed to a very limited ceasefire. It's to help a Ukrainian town that's been under Russian occupation for nearly five years. NPR's Joanna Kakissis has this report on what life there has been like, which includes some graphic details.
JOANNA KAKISSIS, BYLINE: It is nearly impossible to reach the town of Oleshky, which sits on the Dnipro River in southern Ukraine. Russian forces occupied this town in 2022 and mined the land around it. Food and medicine rarely get through, and the roughly 2,000 residents remaining in Oleshky cannot get out.
(SOUNDBITE OF DIAL TONE)
KAKISSIS: NPR spoke to a woman from Oleshky whose elderly mother still lives there. At her request, NPR is not using her or her mother's real name or voice for safety reasons. She says she fears Russian authorities will target them both. She gives her name as Solomiia (ph), and her mother's as Halyna (ph).
SOLOMIIA: (Through voice actor) She tries to call every day. I make sure I never miss that call. Wherever I am, no matter what I'm doing, I will drop everything and talk to her. Nothing is more important than hearing her voice.
KAKISSIS: Because that means her mother is still alive.
SOLOMIIA: (Through voice actor) The people of Oleshky are not just starving. They are dying of hunger. There is no flour, no electricity. There is no water unless it's from a well. My mom eats pickles she makes from the vegetables she grows just outside her front door.
KAKISSIS: She says her mother also makes soup from grass and weeds from her yard, which she barely leaves.
SOLOMIIA: (Through voice actor) Next to my mother's yard, there are land mines on one side. I worry they will explode at any moment. There are a lot of drones lying in her yard tangled in the flowers. A drone chased her in her own yard. She fell and broke her arm.
KAKISSIS: Drones have killed her mother's neighbors. Their bodies are often left on the street for days because it's too dangerous to retrieve them. Solomiia says her mother has seen stray dogs eating those bodies. The dogs are starving too.
SOLOMIIA: (Through voice actor) My mom says the Russians don't allow residents to bury the bodies. They're shot at if they try to.
KAKISSIS: Oleshky's top official in exile, Tetiana Hasanenko, has been hearing such horror stories for months. Many residents know her personally and send her secure private messages.
TETIANA HASANENKO: (Speaking Ukrainian).
KAKISSIS: "People want me to give them hope," she says, "but what can I tell them?" Ukraine's military has tried to ease Oleshky's humanitarian crisis by using drones to drop parcels of food and medicine near homes. Yevhen Voronetskyi is a spokesman for the 34th Separate Marine Brigade.
YEVHEN VORONETSKYI: (Speaking Ukrainian).
KAKISSIS: "We are not just sending them this food so they can make it through the winter," he says. "We want them to regain their strength and get out of Oleshky." Only a few locals have managed to escape in the last month, guided by a network run by Ksenia Arkhipova, who grew up in Oleshky.
KSENIA ARKHIPOVA: (Speaking Ukrainian).
KAKISSIS: "It is impossible for residents to drive out of the town," she says, "so they have to walk on roads full of land mines and with Russian drones flying over them."
(SOUNDBITE OF PROTEST)
UNIDENTIFIED PROTESTER: (Chanting) Save Oleshky.
UNIDENTIFIED PROTESTERS: (Chanting) Save Oleshky.
KAKISSIS: Ukrainians have tried to get the word out about Oleshky both online and at protests like this one, outside the Vatican's embassy in Kyiv.
(SOUNDBITE OF PROTEST)
UNIDENTIFIED PROTESTERS: (Singing in Ukrainian).
KAKISSIS: Art historian Oksana Ivanchenkova (ph) holds up a handmade sign that reads, can torturers be Christian?
OKSANA IVANCHENKOVA: (Speaking Ukrainian).
KAKISSIS: "I understand it's impossible to negotiate with Vladimir Putin," she says. "Still, we must try because God sees everything." At the Vatican, Pope Leo has taken notice. Earlier this month, he urged Putin to create a humanitarian corridor for food, medicine and the evacuation of residents. First lady Melania Trump also joined the effort. On Friday, Ukraine and Russia said they had agreed to a ceasefire for Oleshky. We checked back with Solomiia about her mother, Halyna
SOLOMIIA: (Through voice actor) My mother says residents have been informed that starting Tuesday morning they would be loaded onto buses and taken to a shut-down children's camp. After that, it's not clear.
KAKISSIS: Solomiia says Halyna sounded frightened and suspicious because, after nearly five years of all-out war, she does not believe in ceasefires.
Joanna Kakissis, NPR News, Kyiv.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC) Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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