Ancient history The area around Oleshky has been known since antiquity.
Herodotus mentioned
Scythian forests in the mouth of the
Dnieper in the 5th century BCE, which were called "Oleshye" (from the Slavic word for
forest) by the
Slavs. Until the 10th century, the town belonged to the
Byzantine sphere of influence, but then became a client of
Kievan Rus. It is believed by some historians that Oleshia existed from the 10th to the 13th century as a large
Slavic trading city, which was a stronghold of Kievan Rus in the lower
Dnieper. It was a major port and important
fishing site. A trade route from
Kyiv to
Byzantium and the Transnistria region ran through the city. Eventually in 1734, the Cossacks were officially allowed to return to the
Russian Empire.
Tsarist Russia and the Soviet Union Intensive settlement of the region around Oleshky began in 1783 after the
annexation of Crimea by the Russian Empire. In May 1784, fifty
state peasants settled at the site of the Cossack fortress Oleshky and founded a settlement of the same name. In 1802, after the formation of the
Taurida Governorate, Oleshky became the seat of
Dneprovsky Uyezd within the governorate. Oleshky was also granted town status. According to Soviet sources, a total of 2,160 civilians in Oleshky and neighboring localities were murdered by the Nazis, and 356 were
deported to Germany for forced labor. Tsiurupynsk itself was liberated by the
Red Army on 4 November 1943, but German troops held onto a bridgehead near the Tsiurupynsk railway station nearby until 20 December 1943.
21st century On 21 November 2007, the town council adopted resolution No.296 to restore the name Oleshky. The town council deputies and district councils, as well as the local
Cossacks, wrote a letter to then
president Victor Yushchenko requesting that the petition be carried out. It was not until 19 May 2016 that the
Verkhovna Rada (Ukraine's national parliament) adopted the resolution to rename Tsiurupynsk as Oleshky and conform to the
law prohibiting names of Communist origin after a 9-year campaign by the town's council and residents.
Oleshky urban hromada was created in June 2020 in accordance with an edict by the
Ukrainian government determining the territories of hromadas in the Kherson region, by uniting the Oleshky city municipality with various village councils in
Oleshky Raion. Until 18 July 2020, Oleshky was the administrative center of Oleshky Raion. The raion was abolished in July 2020 as part of the administrative reform of Ukraine, which reduced the number of raions in Kherson Oblast to five. The area of Oleshky Raion was merged into
Kherson Raion. On 24 February 2022, Oleshky was occupied by Russian forces in the
2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine. On 14 April 2022, Russian forces removed the
flag of Ukraine from the town hall and replaced it with a
Russian flag. 7 months later, Russian forces withdrew from
Kherson city and the part of the region north of the Dnipro river in November 2022. Ukraine's National Resistance Center announced in December 2022 that all Russian collaborators had left Oleshky. On 20 March 2023, Russia reinstated the name Tsiurupynsk for the town, stating that it was "part of the reversal of the renamings" that had taken place after the 2014
Revolution of Dignity, which they referred to as "the
coup d'état in
Kyiv." In June 2023, Oleshky was almost completely flooded as a result of the
destruction of the Kakhovka Dam, with the water rising to roof level for many buildings. In 2025 Ukrainian forces destroyed a strategically important bridge near Oleshky. Due to the mining of the only remaining road connecting the city to the outside world, starting from December 2025 Oleshky has suffered from a
food crisis, with locals being forced to survive by growing food on their own garden plots or hunting wild birds and hares. The situation was made even more difficult due to the lack of medicaments. Russian administration in occupied territories provided support only to those inhabitants, who agreed to accept Russian citizenship. Several packages of humanitarian aid were delivered by
Ukrainian forces with the help of
drones. Due to mass flight of inhabitants, as well as forced mobilization of men to the Russian army, by 2026 the population of Oleshky declined to circa 2,000 inhabitants, most of them elderly people and their caretakers, as well as men hiding from recruitment into the army. ==Economy==