On 21 October, European Parliament Vice-President Pina Picierno announced a hunger strike to draw international attention to the emergency situation in Oleshky, Ukraine, where “thousands of people are trapped in territory occupied by the Russian army, without regular access to food and medicine.”
According to Picierno, mined areas outside Oleshky are extremely dangerous: “Those who stay risk dying of hunger, those who try to leave risk their lives.”
Picierno added that “this battle” cannot be hers alone. She called on associations, citizens, and national and local institutions to join her nonviolent action: “We must demand an immediate humanitarian truce, the entry of food and medicines, and the possibility of safely evacuating civilians who wish to leave the city.”
Picierno posted on X that with this mobilisation, she wants to support the efforts of Pope Leo XIV and of all those who, in this moment, are doing “everything possible to avert a humanitarian tragedy of enormous proportions.”
“The people of Oleshky cannot be abandoned. It is time to act together, so that diplomacy delivers concrete results and no one is left to die in silence,” Picierno concluded her post.
