Russian commanders identified in Oleshky humanitarian blockade; Ukraine delivers food by drone
Ukrainian investigators named commanders of two Russian units — the 126th Separate Coastal Defense Brigade and the 331st Guards Airborne Regiment — as possibly responsible for a humanitarian catastrophe in occupied Oleshky on the left bank of Kherson Oblast. More than 6,000 residents, including around 200 children, are reported cut off from food, medicine, and gas, with the Ukrainian military delivering roughly four tonnes of food by drone. Ukrainian Ombudsman Dmytro Lubinets said Russia has refused to confirm a humanitarian evacuation, and Foreign Minister Sybiha said he would raise the situation at the UN General Assembly.
Key points
- More than 6,000 people, including around 200 children, may remain in occupied Oleshky in a grey zone near the front line.
- Residents are reported to be without food, medicine, and gas, with Russian forces preventing evacuation.
- Ukrainian drones delivered approximately four tonnes of food into occupied Oleshky; one resident said he received only a bottle of oil, a kilogram of flour, a pack of sugar, and several canned goods.
- Slidstvo.Info named commanders of the Russian 126th Separate Coastal Defense Brigade and the 331st Guards Airborne Regiment as possibly responsible for the humanitarian situation.
- On 16 September, Ombudsman Dmytro Lubinets said Russia has long refused to confirm readiness to conduct a humanitarian evacuation mission from Oleshky.
- On 25 September, Lubinets said Ukraine was ready to pursue several scenarios to save Oleshky residents.
- Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha said he would raise Oleshky and other occupied settlements at the UN General Assembly to secure a civilian corridor.
Why it matters
The situation in Oleshky is being framed by Ukrainian officials and investigators as a man-made humanitarian catastrophe in which thousands of civilians, including children, are being held in a blockade by occupying Russian forces. Naming specific units and commanders shifts the conversation from a vague occupation hardship to questions of individual accountability, while the resort to drone food drops underscores how limited normal relief channels have become. Ukraine's plan to raise the issue at the UN General Assembly indicates the government wants international leverage to force an evacuation corridor.
What happened
Ukraine's investigative outlet Slidstvo.Info reported that the 126th Separate Coastal Defense Brigade of the Russian Black Sea Fleet and the 331st Guards Airborne Regiment are deployed in occupied Oleshky on the left bank of Kherson Oblast, and that their commanders may be responsible for the humanitarian catastrophe unfolding there. The city, occupied since the first days of the full-scale invasion, was left without adequate food, medicine, and gas; residents are reported to be starving and prevented from leaving. Ukrainian Ombudsman Dmytro Lubinets said on 16 September that Russia had long refused to confirm readiness for a humanitarian evacuation mission, and on 25 September said Ukraine was ready to pursue several scenarios to save residents. The Ukrainian military delivered roughly four tonnes of food by drone; one resident told journalists that he personally received only a bottle of oil, a kilogram of flour, a pack of sugar, and several canned goods, which he shared with neighbours. Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha said he would raise Oleshky and other occupied settlements at the UN General Assembly to secure a civilian corridor.
How Ukrainian sources describe it
All four supplied sources are Ukrainian-language outlets that frame the story as a humanitarian catastrophe caused by Russian occupation forces. Coverage centres on Slidstvo.Info's investigation and on Ukrainian institutional responses: Ombudsman Lubinets's statements, Ukrainian military drone deliveries of food, and Foreign Minister Sybiha's intention to raise the issue at the UN General Assembly. The reporting foregrounds named Russian units and commanders as the actors potentially responsible for civilian suffering.
Where reporting differs
Sources disagree on the identity of the commander of the 126th Coastal Defense Brigade: Slidstvo.Info, citing a reference in a Russian Telegram channel, names Colonel Oleg Aleksandrov as of May 2025, while the OSINT project 'Komandyry Provalu' (Commanders of Failure) names 43-year-old Konstantin Kochetkov. There is also a conflict over the timing of aid: one source says the last food supplies to occupied Oleshky territory were at the end of May 2026, while other reporting describes an ongoing humanitarian blockade with residents currently starving and Ukrainian drone deliveries continuing in September.
Background
Oleshky has been under Russian occupation since the first days of the full-scale invasion in 2022 and suffered large-scale flooding and destruction after the destruction of the Kakhovka Dam in June 2023. The 126th Separate Coastal Defense Brigade of the Russian Black Sea Fleet was formed in 2014 on the basis of the former Ukrainian 36th Coastal Defense Brigade, incorporating servicemembers who switched sides after the occupation of Crimea; it is based in Perevalne, Crimea, and is part of the Russian 'Dnepr' grouping on the Kherson direction. The 331st Guards Airborne Regiment, part of the 98th Guards Airborne Division based in Kostroma Oblast, was implicated in the shooting of Ukrainian servicemembers leaving Ilovaisk through a 'green corridor' in 2014 and has since fought in multiple sectors, including Kyiv Oblast and the Svatove-Kreminna, Bakhmut, and Chasiv Yar axes. At the end of July, Russian servicemembers of the 126th Brigade publicly appealed to the Russian Ministry of Defense, Chief Military Prosecutor's Office, and Investigative Committee, citing shortages of equipment, problems evacuating the wounded and dead, and concealment of real losses; the appeal was later removed from most Russian resources, with no public information on whether the brigade's command changed afterward.