Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky visited the flood-hit city of Kherson in an effort to encourage the area’s emergency workers, who were struggling to help thousands of residents evacuate after a dam was destroyed earlier this week. Even as local organizations tried to rescue residents, Russian attacks hindered them, with shelling striking close to an evacuation point in the center of Kherson. The dangers of the flood are compounded by land mines and toxic material in the floodwaters.
“There was nowhere to hide,” said Serhiy Ludensky, who was on a boat near a flooded square when the shelling started. The people on the boat were trapped in a flooded dormitory and could hear people screaming, but were eventually rescued.
The Kakhovka dam explosion caused a flood that has impacted tens of thousands of people across a war zone controlled by Russia and Ukraine. Mykola Shuliuk, a resident of a coastal village in Mykolaiv region, described the flood as “horror.”
The flooding has already claimed several lives and continues to cause chaos in both Russian and Ukrainian-controlled territories. CARE, an aid agency, has had to retreat from the area after increased shelling and artillery attacks in the city. Zelensky has called for a “clear and quick global response” to the disaster, criticizing international agencies for not contributing. French President Emmanuel Macron spoke with Zelensky to promise aid supplies, but the fighting in the area has made delivery challenging.
The Ukrainian and Russian-backed authorities reported that they evacuated several thousand people from flooded areas, although some residents disputed this and described chaos and intimidation within the region. Furthermore, the number of those brought to safety is a fraction of the known tens of thousands who are estimated to be at risk of flood dangers, including unsafe drinking water and collapsed structures. Some residents have even refused to leave their homes, which are now submerged, despite the danger. Ukrainians also fear that the flooding could become a justification for relocating occupied areas and taking children away from their families.
CARE’s Ukraine area manager, Selena Kozakijevic, stated that the situation in the region was severe, with residents being unable to access clean drinking water because contamination threatened by oil leaks, landfills, and latrines. Moreover, the residents and volunteers in the area face the danger of unexploded landmines scattered by the floodwaters.
In Kherson, volunteers, medics, and rescue teams have been congregating on higher ground near a landmark city square, which is flooded but is serving as an evacuation point. Outside the city, Ukrainians have watched their homes and others being dismantled by the flood.
“Everything washes by,” said Natalia Kamenetska, a resident whose village, Stanislav, is downstream from the ruined dam. “Before the war, the river brought communities together… Now, it is a front line that divides friends and families.”
Contributors: Brendan Hoffman, Evelina Riabenko, Anna Lukinova, Matthew Mpoke Bigg, Aurelien Breeden, Cora Engelbrecht, Emma Bubola and David Kurkovskiy.
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