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.
In a Sept. 19 appeal, the Ukrainian Council of Churches and Religious Organizations 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 6,000 civilians remaining there, including some 200 children, who are "effectively trapped in a 'gray zone' near the front line," said UCCRO.
Russian forces have imposed a "humanitarian blockade," with food supplies last "delivered to the area at the end of May," said UCCRO.
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 Sept. 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 weaponized 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 Sept. 21 Facebook post.
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," said Sybiha.
He also pointed to deadly Russian attacks in which FPV drones target individual civilians in the Kherson region. The campaigns -- which date back to at least 2024 -- have been termed a "human safari" by investigators and condemned by the United Nations as a crime against humanity.
Sybiha pledged to discuss the Oleshky humanitarian crisis at the U.N. General Assembly in New York during its high-level week Sept. 18-28.
On Sept. 21, Reuters reported that the Kremlin admitted to "critical problems with food and medical supplies" in Oleshky, but said the Russian military "was working to resolve them."
In its appeal, UCCRO noted that Oleshky's "critical infrastructure has been virtually destroyed, and electricity and gas supplies are unavailable."
The city was one of several flooded by Russia's 2023 intentional destruction of the Kakhovka Hydroelectric Power Plant in Kherson, said UCCRO.
The religious leaders said Russia "is exploiting the humanitarian catastrophe for propaganda purposes, spreading blatant manipulation and falsehoods."
"Russia has repeatedly disregarded international humanitarian law, subjecting the residents of Oleshky to suffering and starvation," said UCCRO.
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 organizations to raise their voices and use every available means to save the residents of Oleshky … from death by starvation."
In addition, UCCRO called upon both U.N. member states and the International Committee of the Red Cross "to take the necessary steps to carry out a humanitarian mission aimed at evacuating the residents of Oleshky to Ukrainian government-controlled territory."
The religious leaders expressed their gratitude for all those supporting Ukraine and for "their prayers for an end to Russia’s armed aggression and the coming of a just and lasting peace for Ukraine and Europe."
Russia's attacks -- initiated in 2014, and accelerated by a 2022 full-scale invasion -- have been classified as a genocide in multiple reports by the New Lines Institute for Strategy and Policy and the Raoul Wallenberg Center for Human Rights.
