'The blockade is complete': Locals flee occupied south Ukraine as hunger deepens

KYIV and LONDON -- Editor's note: This story contains graphic descriptions of wartime injuries and fatalities.

The southern Ukrainian city of Oleshky -- under Russian occupation since 2022 -- has become "hell on earth," local officials and humanitarian workers told ABC News, as thousands of remaining residents face starvation and hundreds flee through a war zone littered with mines and bodies.

Oleshky is located close to the eastern bank of the Dnipro River, which since Ukraine's liberation of the city of Kherson in the fall of 2022 has formed the frontline between Ukrainian and Russian forces in the southern theater.