The town in southern Ukraine has been under Russian occupation for more than four years. Its remaining inhabitants have spent the last two and a half years without basic utilities or medical services, the report states.
Vera Gulyaeva, a 64-year-old retired schoolteacher, left Oleshky in March after her husband Serhiy was killed. The couple had met at a friend's wedding in 1985 and built a small house together. They remained in the town even after their children fled to Kyiv-controlled areas, relying on an orchid, a vegetable patch, five hens, a water well and a power generator that ran on overpriced gasoline bought from middlemen.
In March, a Russian drone struck a bread line in Oleshky, killing several people and wounding Serhiy Gulyaev, a retired 63-year-old driver. He suffered deep cranial wounds. An attempt to reach a hospital 80 kilometres away in Skadovsk failed when the ambulance hit a landmine on the road. A second attempt succeeded days later, but he died in the hospital. Gulyaeva recovered his remains, had them cremated and returned home with his ashes.
Now living in western Ukraine with her daughter-in-law and two grandchildren while her son fights Russian forces, she told Al Jazeera: "People ate all of the food they'd stashed. People are starving." She left behind all her family photos, friends and neighbours, several of whom have since died.
Some residents survive on what they have farmed, stashed or found in abandoned apartments or houses. Others try to reach the nearest functioning grocery shop in the neighbouring village of Radensk, 20 kilometres away, to buy food. But some never return, with landmines posing a constant threat along the route.