In Oleshky the occupiers have allowed burying only the bodies of the deceased, while the bodies of those killed are reportedly taken to Kalanchak for examination. Relatives do not always receive information about where their family members are later buried.
This was told to Ukrinform by the head of the Oleshky MCA, Tetyana Hasanenko.
“It has come to the point that from one of the hospital buildings, which is not intended for storing the bodies of the deceased and the killed, in Oleshky there was already a specific corpse smell. Therefore a requirement appeared to take to Kalanchak exclusively only the bodies of people who died from shelling or who blew up on a mine. The occupiers explain this by saying they are documenting ‘crimes of the Armed Forces of Ukraine’. But there are bodies that were taken to Kalanchak three months ago and four months ago, and they were not returned to relatives. That is, it is a one-way journey even for a body,” – Hasanenko noted.
The official spoke about a case of a local woman whose son died back in December. His body lay until May, after which the mother was simply told that the man had been buried somewhere in Dobropillia or Dobrosillia, without being given exact coordinates. According to Hasanenko, finding out the exact burial place of relatives under occupation is now considered a big “stroke of luck”.
At the same time, those who died of natural causes are allowed to be buried on site. Certificates are issued by the Oleshky hospital, and then relatives are forced to transport the bodies to the cemetery themselves on wheelbarrows, since transport in the city does not operate. Burials are carried out in pits that were dug in the cemetery back in the autumn.
Earlier we wrote that since the autumn of 2025 more than 300 civilian residents of occupied Oleshky may have died from hunger, cold and shelling.
Prior to that, ombudsman Dmytro Lubinets reported progress in negotiations regarding the rescue of residents of Oleshky and the surrounding villages.
The local illegal leadership does not acknowledge that there are serious humanitarian problems in the city, and claims that there are no evacuation measures for the population there.