The UN and ICRC must facilitate humanitarian aid and the evacuation of civilians from Oleshky

As the occupying power, the Russian Federation must grant humanitarian organisations rapid and unimpeded access to civilians. Both parties to the armed conflict must agree to a local ceasefire, ensure the safety of humanitarian staff and refrain from any actions that could endanger civilians, humanitarian convoys or evacuation routes.

Oleshky, a city on the left bank of the Dnipro River, has been occupied by Russia since February 2022, and has been, in fact, on the front line since November of that year, when Russian forces withdrew from the right bank part of the Kherson Oblast. Since then, the situation of civilians remaining in the city has steadily deteriorated.

Hostilities, drone attacks and landmines pose a serious threat to civilians and severely hinder both aid deliveries and residents’ attempts to leave the city on their own. As a result, residents are left without effective access to food, medicine or medical care. Older people, persons with disabilities, the sick and the wounded are often unable to leave at all. As early as this summer, the UN Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine and Human Rights Watch independently reported on the situation in Oleshky. In September, both parties to the armed conflict publicly acknowledged that the situation there is critical. Residents of other settlements on the left bank of the Dnipro in Kherson Oblast, including Hola Prystan, Stara Zburivka and Nova Zburivka, face similar hardships.

International humanitarian law obliges all parties to an armed conflict to protect the civilian population. The attacking party must comply with the principles of distinction, proportionality, and precaution. At the same time, the party in control of the territory must “take all feasible precautions to protect the civilian population, individual civilians, and civilian objects under their control against the dangers resulting from military operations”.

In addition, as the occupying power, the Russian Federation bears further obligations. Under Article 55 of the Fourth Geneva Convention, it is responsible for ensuring the population has access to food and medical supplies. According to Article 59 of the same Convention, if the population of an occupied territory is inadequately supplied, the occupying power “shall agree to relief schemes on behalf of the said population and shall facilitate these schemes by all means at its disposal”.

Such relief can be provided by impartial humanitarian organisations, such as the ICRC. Article 59 also explicitly requires all States Parties to permit the free passage and guarantee the protection of relief consignments.

Customary international humanitarian law likewise requires all parties to the conflict to respect and protect humanitarian relief personnel and objects. Under Article 8(2)(b)(iii) of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, intentionally directing attacks against personnel, installations, material, units, or vehicles involved in humanitarian assistance is a war crime.

In the current situation, we believe that mediation by the ICRC and UN OCHA is the most effective way to help the civilian population, as they can facilitate dialogue between the parties to the conflict in order to develop and implement an evacuation mechanism.

Negotiations between Ukraine and the Russian Federation have been ongoing for months, yet have so far failed to produce results. Without active mediation, an agreement is unlikely in the near future. At the same time, experience from this war shows that agreement is possible with such involvement. For example, in May 2022, joint UN and ICRC operations successfully evacuated over 600 civilians from the Azovstal plant and other areas of Mariupol, with the ICRC helping the parties agree on specific parameters, including timing, routes, and who could leave.

Now is the time to apply this experience to Oleshky. This must be based on international humanitarian law, which requires parties to a conflict to try to reach local agreements to evacuate wounded, sick, infirm, elderly and child patients, as well as  women in childbirth, from besieged or encircled areas . While Oleshky is not encircled in the traditional sense, the threat of attacks and heavily mined exit routes effectively place the city in the same position that this rule was designed to address. Additionally, the parties to the conflict must permit and facilitate the rapid and unimpeded delivery of humanitarian aid to civilians in need. The right of the parties to control relief consignments cannot be used as a pretext for aid to be delayed or blocked.