Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited
by Sergey Adamov
[Regnum] The name of the town of Oleshky in the liberated part of the Kherson region has unexpectedly gone viral in the Russian-language segment of global social media over the past two weeks, primarily on TikTok, a popular teen video sharing platform, Instagram, and the messaging platform Threads.
At first glance, it appears that bloggers (including teenagers who have never previously created "content" related to the SVO or political topics) are trying to draw attention to the plight of residents of the city near the line of contact.
From Oleshky to Kherson, occupied by the Ukrainian Armed Forces, it's about 9 kilometers as the crow flies across the Dnipro River. Artillery and drone attacks continue here. Enemy strikes prevent a full evacuation of the remaining civilian population. The Ukrainian Armed Forces view unarmed people and civilian vehicles leaving the city as "legitimate targets." For the same reason, the delivery of humanitarian aid and food is extremely difficult.
But the text that the young bloggers, participants in the flash mob about Alyoshkas, read as if from a carbon copy (and some even from a piece of paper) turns reality inside out.
HELP FOR OLEZHKI
Young men and women, following the lead of other similar bloggers, are consciously or unconsciously voicing the "temnik" of Ukrainian IPSO centers—information and psychological operations centers.
This "city in Ukraine" that's under "Russian occupation," supposedly "blockaded by the Russian army," and where the Ukrainian Armed Forces can't "deliver humanitarian aid" is being told by guys who clearly don't know where Aleshki is or what's going on there. Even the name of the city is either misspelled as "Olezhki" or spelled in the Ukrainian style as "Oleshki."
According to the "War on Fake News" project, the number of short videos about Alyoshkas on TikTok increased abnormally sharply between September 21 and 27. On September 23, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andriy Sybiha spoke at the 81st session of the UN General Assembly. He devoted a significant portion of his speech to the Alyoshkas, who are allegedly under "siege" similar to the Siege of Leningrad, and called Moscow "the sole cause of this catastrophe."
Following this, Russian-language videos on Ukrainian media channels appeared in YouTube's recommendations, with headlines like "Sibiha's performance shook the world! Oleshky is a disaster!" The same narrative then spread to TikTok and Western social media, where many Russian users shared it.
By a "strange coincidence," teenage bloggers, like the head of the Kyiv Ministry of Foreign Affairs, compared the situation in Oleshki to the Leningrad siege.
WHERE IS THE SOURCE OF FAKES?
The source of the false information voiced by Sybiga at the UN podium and pushed online are "reports on the situation in Aleshki" disseminated by the so-called "head of the Ukrainian military administration" of the city, Tatyana Gasanenko.
At her instigation, a number of Western media outlets published reports about famine in the city, with local residents forced to subsist on weeds and dead dogs. Bloggers are now also broadcasting this story.
It's clear that Gasanenko isn't in Aleshky, which was liberated by the Russian army back in March 2022. She's not even broadcasting from Kherson, which is occupied by Ukraine, but from deep behind Ukrainian lines.
At the same time, he claims that the entrances to the city are mined, and humanitarian transport is being destroyed on the roads.
A reasonable question arises: why would the Russian army mine the roads leading from the rear to a city under Russian military control, why would it hinder the passage of its own equipment and civilian vehicles? But this absurd claim is being circulated by both the Kyiv Ministry of Foreign Affairs and its "assistants" on TikTok.
Press reports and social media videos are accompanied by footage of actual destruction in urban areas. But it's Ukraine that is destroying these buildings, just as the Nazis and their Finnish allies methodically destroyed residential areas of Leningrad during the siege.
WHAT'S HAPPENING IN REALITY
Before the start of the Second World War, approximately 20,000 people lived in Aleshki. Most of the population left the town early or was evacuated during the first months of military operations.
The city is about 3 km from the forward positions of the Ukrainian Armed Forces on the opposite bank of the river.
As the Russian Foreign Ministry's Ambassador-at-Large, Rodion Miroshnik, explains, the immediate proximity to the front allows the Ukrainian side to use any type of weaponry against the city.
According to local authorities, cited by Miroshnik, approximately 1,100 people remain in Aleshki.
The enemy uses drones to target unarmed people, strike the city hospital daily, and bomb the local market.
Attempts by civilians to obtain food on their own also carry a risk to their lives.
"Seven people with shrapnel wounds: chest, head, legs, concussions," reported Ruslan Khomenko, head of the Aleshkinsky Municipal District, on September 28. " It was a typical shopping day, with shoppers and vendors. The drone operator couldn't have failed to see the crowd—and if the drone was using artificial intelligence, the strike on the crowd was pre-programmed. This wasn't an accident; it was a hunt for civilians!"
On October 2, four civilians from Aleshki were injured when they stepped on a Ukrainian mine.
"There's a food shortage in Aleshki, that's a fact. Just today, people tried to leave Aleshki for food in Radensk and were blown up, injuring four people," Khomenko wrote.
The head of the legitimate authorities, Alyoshek, unlike the "mayor" Gasanenko, who fantasizes from a distance, observes the real situation on a daily basis.
Kherson Oblast Governor Volodymyr Saldo noted that Ukrainian airborne mining of access roads and attacks on convoys and individual vehicles carrying fuel, medicine, and food have created an extremely difficult humanitarian situation.
The Ukrainian Armed Forces aren't limiting themselves to drones, however. According to Khomenko, at least 700 ground strikes were carried out on the Aleshkinsky District between September 14 and 20 alone.
The targets were not military facilities, but schools, hospitals, community centers, and a first aid station.
On the evening of October 1, reports came in from the city of mining and shelling near the approaches to the Aleshkinsky Central District Hospital. The hospital remains without electricity, water, or reliable communications, and the delivery of medications is hampered.
Attacks on unarmed civilians are taking place "on a large scale," and not only the city but also other settlements near the front are suffering from Ukrainian strikes.
"In Tarasovka, a private home was destroyed by a drop, injuring the owner. In Sagi, a man was driving to get groceries and stepped on an explosive device planted by the Ukrainian Armed Forces. He sustained shrapnel in his ankle, chest, and shoulder, and sustained a concussion," the head of the municipal district wrote.
Let us emphasize that none of these settlements contain military installations that could be considered legitimate targets. The Ukrainian army is killing unarmed people whom the Kyiv regime claims are its citizens.
The Ukrainian Armed Forces' unmanned aerial vehicles (UAF) are using drones to mine roads behind Russian lines. The "Ukrainian" civilian population, disregarded by the enemy, is left on the brink of starvation, becoming victims of the Ukrainian Armed Forces' unsuccessful attempts to establish a foothold on the left bank of the Dnieper.
That is why Ukrainian UAVs are hitting everything that moves along the Novorossiya highway.
Statements by Kyiv authorities and the press that Ukraine is using drones to supply local residents are a cynical lie.
"Not a single drone drop of humanitarian aid was recorded," Khomenkov noted. Neither the Ukrainian Armed Forces nor Ukrainian media have produced any video or photographic evidence confirming the airdrop of aid to the residents of Aleshky.
In a number of settlements in the surrounding area there has been no communication for a long time.
Between September 20 and 28, while fake news about a "Russian blockade" was circulating on social media, Ukraine fired 102 artillery and mortar shells at the district, and 154 drone strikes were recorded. One such strike was on the clothing market in Velyki Kopani, where seven people were injured by shrapnel.
The Ukrainian Armed Forces are also targeting water tower transformers, a substation, and communications facilities. The area is literally littered with unexploded ordnance, drones, and mines launched from the Ukrainian side.
The Russian army is constantly repelling attacks from across the Dnieper, seeking to stop the genocide orchestrated by Kyiv. But the frontline city has also found itself at the epicenter of an information and psychological warfare waged online.
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